87
THE
PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST,
RELATED TO
THE VERBAL INSPIRATION
HOLY SCRIPTURES
BY
LORD.
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, No. G83 BROADWAY.
1859.
-
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
ELEAZAR LORD,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New- York.
JOHN A. GRAY, Printer and Stereotyper,
18 A 18 Jacob Bt, Fire-Proof Buildings.
IN the ensuing pages the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures is
argued: first, from the nature and limitation of the office of
Christ as Prophet, and His exercise of that office, through the in-
strumentality of the sacred writers, by the inspiring agency of
the Holy Spirit ; and, second, from the fact of human conscious-
ness, that men think and receive, and are conscious of thoughts
only in words — so that thoughts conveyed to their minds by in-
spiration, must necessarily be conveyed in words in order to their
receiving and being conscious of them,
Piermont, April, 1859.
CONTENTS.
L — THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST — His execution of it
partly by His own immediate acts, and partly through
the instrumentality of the Sacred "Writers, by the in-
spiring Agency of the Spirit, 5
IL — THE NATURE AND THE LIMITATIONS OF THE PROPHETIC
OFFICE, 9
III. — OF THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT, IN RELATION TO THE
SCRIPTURES, 29
IV. — THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION, . . . .35
Y. — WERE THE VERY WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED TO THE
SACRED WRITERS BY INSPIRATION, . . .41
VL — REFERENCE TO THE VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING
THE TABERNACLE AND THE LEVITICAL FAITH AND
WORSHIP, 67
VH — THE Locos AND THE SPIRIT REVEALED IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT — THE FATHER CHIEFLY IN THE NEW, . 77
VIII. — THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE, 100
IX — THE RELATIVE AND FINITE ONLY CONCEIVABLE BY THE
HUMAN MIND— SIB WILLIAM HAMILTON'S DOCTRINE
OF THE CONDITIONED— RELATIVE, LIMITED, . .129
X. — IMPORTANCE OF VERBAL INSPIRATION, .... 142
THE
PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
I. THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST — His EXE-
CUTION OF IT, PARTLY BY HlS OWN IMMEDIATE
ACTS, AND PARTLY THROUGH THE INSTRUMEN-
TALITY OF THE SACRED WRITERS, BY THE INSPIR-
ING AGENCY OF THE SPIRIT.
IN a former volume I endeavored to state some
principles which seemed to me important, both to a
right understanding of the nature of Divine Inspira-
tion, and to a defense* of the doctrine of plenary verbal
inspiration : as, namely, that by a law of our minds
we think and are conscious of thought only in words —
that we conceive thoughts, receive thoughts from
others, are conscious of them, remember them, and
express them only in words, which, when uttered,
represent them to others as perfectly as we are con-
scious of them. This I suppose to be as true of all
other intelligent agents as of man — a universal law of
intellectual action. In our own case we infer it from our
consciousness of thinking in words, receiving thoughts
from the verbal articulations and writings of others, and
6 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
remembering and expressing them in the same words.
Each individual being conscious of this for himself,
justly infers that the same is true of all other indi-
viduals of his race. When intelligent agents of an-
other race — as angels — speak to man, they convey their
thoughts in words, and in return receive his thoughts
in words ; which implies that they think, are conscious
of, and remember their thoughts in words. If their
words express their thoughts, they must undoubtedly
be conscious of the thoughts in the words which they
utter, and they must remember their own thoughts in
the words they had uttered, if they truly understand
the thoughts in the words uttered in reply. For how
could they receive the words of man in answer to a
question put by them, if they did not remember the
words in which they put the question, and were not
conscious of their own thoughts in the words of the
question, and conscious of the thoughts returned in the
w&rds of the answer ?
So when the Divine Being speaks to man, His words
convey His thoughts. Man receives and is conscious
of His thoughts, by receiving and being conscious of
His words. All that he knows of the thoughts is ex-
pressed in the words. The thoughts can not be con-
veyed to his understanding, or realized to his con-
sciousness, apart from the words in which they are
conceived and expressed. Without irreverence, there-
fore, this law of intellectual action may be regarded as
of universal application. In the nature of the case the
mode of thought, of intellectual action in consciously
thinking, is verbal. A wordless thought is as incon-
ceivable as a formless flower. Thinking and convey-
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 7
ing thoughts apart from words or signs equivalent to
silent or vocal articulations, is no more possible than see-
ing without visual, or hearing without auditory organs.
Hence I infer that the Divine thoughts conveyed to
the sacred penmen, were conveyed in the very words
which they wrote as Holy Scripture. 1. Because
thoughts can be conveyed from one mind to another,
only in words or equivalent signs. 2. Because, man
is so constituted that he can not receive, and be con-
scious of, the thoughts of another, except in the words
which properly express them. 3. Because, the writer,
being conscious of the words as he received them, could
not write other than those words, without resisting his
consciousness, and violating his integrity. 4. Because
words so conveyed, received, and written, are the very
words of Him who conveyed them; whereas, other
words substituted in their place would not be His.
With this agrees the Scripture doctrine of Inspira-
tion— Theopneustos — a Divine act conveying to the
sacred penmen that which they uttered in writing, re
alizing to their consciousness the thoughts in the words,
in-breathing them in a manner analogous to the im-
pulsion of air into the lungs. All Scripture — namely,
that which the sacred penmen were appointed to write,
the words which they wrote which constitute the
Scriptures — was given, imparted, conveyed to them by
Inspiration, the in-breathing act of God.
Now all who believe the Scriptures to be of Divine
authority, regard them as one of the very greatest gifts
of God to man. Their relations and objects are such
as to make it necessary to regard them as the word of
God, the infallible expression, of His thoughts, His mind
8 THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
and will ; the only rule of faith and life. These claims
on their behalf are founded on their inspiration. Their
having been imparted to the writers by inspiration, the
act of God, their Author. The thoughts and words ex-
isted in the Divine Mind before they were conveyed to
the minds of the sacred penmen, and were consciously
received and realized in their minds as the words of
God before they wrote them. As written, therefore,
they are the words of God.
The Divine procedure in the bestowment of this
gift is in harmony with its infinite importance relatively
to the glory of God, and the exigencies and destinies
of men. It was provided for as an esssential part of
the system of moral government, and of redemption,
to be manifested in the progress of events, by Him,
who, as the Logos in the beginning, created all things.
To Him, under the same delegated character, in His
prophetic office, is to be ascribed the communication
to the world of the words of God : partly by His own
direct personal utterances to patriarchs, prophets, and
apostles, and partly by the inspiring agency of the
Spirit, through the instrumentality of the sacred pen-
men. It is throughout a delegated ministerial work,
performed by messengers officially appointed to convey
and publish the messages verbatim, which were com-
mitted to them as legates, and to which they were ex-
pressly restricted. If the Scriptures throughout were
inspired, then every sentence and every word of the
original texts proceeded from God, the Father of lights,
through the Son as His messenger, the Spirit sent by
Him, and the sacred penmen as His instruments.
I shall, therefore, endeavor to show that the pro-
THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 9
plietic office of Christ, the Kevealer of God — the Logos
in the beginning, and the incarnate Word — expressly
restricted Him to the utterance of the words prescribed
by the Father whose Legate or Messenger He was ;
that He executed His office partly by His own imme-
diate acts, and partly by the agency of the Spirit offi-
cially sent, under the same express restrictions, to in-
spire the prescribed words into the minds of men ap-
pointed to receive and utter them verbatim in writing.
II. THE NATURE AND THE LIMITATIONS OF THE PRO-
PHETIC OFFICE.
I can not better introduce this doctrine than in the
words of the Assembly's Catechism, in answer to the
question : " How doth Christ execute the office of a
prophet ? Christ executeth the office of a prophet in
His revealing to the Church in all ages, by His Spirit
and Word, in divers ways of administration, the whole
will of God, in all things concerning their edification and
salvation." This plainly signifies that He executed that
office from the first institution of the Church, that He
executed it by verbal revelations and instructions, and
by the agency of the Holy Spirit ; and that the communi-
cations so made comprised all that is written in the Holy
Scriptures: all which, the Scriptures very clearly teach.
In that remarkable summary of "statutes and judg-
ments," which Moses, at the command of Jehovah,
spake to the Children of Israel, and recorded in the
book of Deuteronomy, there is a concise description of
the prophetic office of Christ. Moses was about to be
10 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHKIST.
removed by death ; and in view of the future exigen-
cies of his people, he writes : " The Lord said unto me,
.... I will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his
mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. And it shall come to pass, that who-
soever will not hearken unto my words which he shall
speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the
prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my
name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or
that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that
prophet shall die." (Deut. 18.) The particulars in
which the Great Prophet was to be like Moses, were,
that he should appear in the form of man, raised up
from among the Jewish people, and that he should
speak only the words put into his mouth by Jehovah.
This is evident from the context : for the promise was
occasioned by the request of the assembled people at
Horeb, that they might not hear again the voice of the
Lord their God, nor see again the terrors of Sinai.
" They said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we
will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
The foregoing announcement is expressly applied to
Christ, the Logos Incarnate, by the Apostle Peter,
(Acts 3 : 22,) "For Moses truly said unto the fathers,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren, like unto me ; him shall ye hear in
all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it
shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear
that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the peo-
ple." And, again, the martyr Stephen (Acts 7) quotes
the same prediction as designating " the Just One " of
THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 11
whom his accusers had been the betrayers and the
murderers. That specialty of the office which pro-
vided that The Prophet should speak only the words
put in his moutfi by Him whose Messenger he was, is
expressly recognized, and its fulfillment attested by
Christ himself. Thus, " He whom the Father sancti-
fied and sent into the world" declares of Himself:
" I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. . . . My doc-
trine is not mine, but His that sent me. ... He whom
God hath sent, speaketh the words of God ; for God
giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. ... I do
nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me,
I speak these things I have not spoken of my-
self; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a
commandment, what I should say and what I should
speak." Again, addressing the Father, when about to
close His direct personal teachings, He said : "I have
given unto them the words which Thou gavest me."
It is plain, therefore, that Christ, the Incarnate
Word, in the execution of His prophetic office, was at
liberty to speak, and actually spoke, those words only
which the Father put into His mouth. He was offi-
cially in the strictest sense, the Legate, Representative,
Messenger of the Father. But He was no less strictly
so under the preceding dispensations, than while He
personally sojourned on earth in the human nature.
As the Logos in the beginning, all things were created
by Him, and for Him. From the beginning He was
the Legate of the Father, commissioned to execute
His will in the works of Creation, Providence, and
Grace ; and sustained the offices of Prophet, Priest, and
12 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
King — the Revealer of God, the Teacher and -final
Judge of men. No man hath seen God the Father
at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. His ap-
pointment to the subordinate offices, relations and
agencies which he was to sustain and execute, included
the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, as well as the
works of Creation and Providence ; and it is not more
certain that He performed those works, and filled the
offices of Priest and King during the primeval and
Levitical dispensations, than that He executed, what
was from the very beginning most necessary — His
office as Prophet, Kevealer, Teacher and Law-giver of
men. Accordingly He says : " The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me " —
designated me to this office — " to preach good tidings
unto the meek ; He hath sent me to bind up the brok-
en-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to pro-
claim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn,"
etc., etc. Answerable to this was his message to John
the Baptist, in proof that He was the Prophet that
should come: "Go your way and tell John what
things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached,
and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."
To the same effect are the prophetic references else-
where to His peculiar office as prophet ; as in Isa.
59 : 20, 21, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and
unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith
.THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 13
Jehovah. As for me, this is my covenant with them,
saith Jehovah ; my Spirit that is upon thee — the Ee-
deemer — and my words which I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of
the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed's seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for-
ever."
Again, in the 40th Psalm, (quoted and applied Heb.
10,) where the non-requirement and insignificance of
the typical sacrifices apart from His obedience in His
prophetic and sacerdotal offices having been brought
into view, it is written : u Then said I, Lo, I come ; in
the volume of the Book it is written of me, I delight
to do thy will, 0 my God ; yea, thy law is within my
heart. I have preached righteousness in the great
congregation ; lo, I have not refrained my lips. 0
Lord, Thou knowest, I have not hid Thy righteous-
ness within my heart ; I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation ; I have not concealed Thy loving
kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation."
Under the title of the Messenger (angel) Jehovah,
the Messenger of the Covenant, as it is expressed in
Malachi 3, He is mentioned many times in the Pen-
tateuch and subsequent parts of the Old Testament ;
generally as appearing to individuals on extraordinary
occasions, in the visible likeness of, and as performing
acts proper to man — as speaking audibly, receiving
answers, giving directions ; as coming, standing, walk-
ing, stretching forth his hand; as seeing and being
seen ; as receiving worship ; as going before the camp
of Israel in a pillar of cloud, through the Eed Sea and
the wilderness; as speaking with Moses and with
14 THE PEOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
prophets. When His Divine nature only is referred
to, He is generally called Jehovah. When His official
character and acts, His personal presence and visibility
are specially indicated, He is called the Messenger, or
a man, or is designated by some official title. The
man with whom Jacob wrestled, is in Hosea 12 de-
scribed as the Messenger, — even the Lord God of
Hosts, whose memorial is Jehovah. "Moses was in
the church in the wilderness with the Messenger (Jeho-
vah) who spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with
our fathers." (Acts 7 : 38.)
Thus the Logos from the beginning, under the
names which designated His Divine nature, and under
the titles which signified His subordinate official cha-
racter, and often His visible presence and official acts, as
the angel, that is, the Messenger Jehovah, the anointed,
that is, the Messiah, etc., executed the office of Kevealer,
Teacher, Prophet, under the express condition and
limitation, proper to one sent to deliver verbatim the
messages of an official superior, — namely, that He
should utter no other than the words given, dictated,
put into his mouth. Those words perfectly expressed
what the Father willed to have uttered in His name,
on His authority, as the infallible rule of faith and
life.
But the Divine Prophet, both under the former and
the present dispensations, executed this office in part
directly in His own person, and partly through the in-
strumentality of messengers, prophets, and apostles,
appointed by Him, and directly subordinate to Him.
Under the primeval dispensation He spoke and con-
veyed His teachings directly to Adam, Noah, Job,
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 15
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; and under the Levitical, to
Moses, to the assembled people at Mount Sinai, to the
people at Bochim, to Gideon, to Jephtha, to Manoah, to
the children of Benjamin, and to others on various oc-
casions. And under those dispensations, especially
after the death of Moses, He exercised His prophetic
office mediately, through the instrumentality of men
whom He designated and commissioned to speak His
words in His name, as He spoke the words of the
Father ; which words He conveyed to them not by
His own audible utterances, as to Moses and the
Patriarchs, but by the Holy Spirit, inspiring them into
their minds, (realizing them to their intelligent con-
sciousness, whether in dreams or otherwise.) Thus
the word of the Lord came to them, the Spirit spake
in them, by them, "by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began."
But in the nature of the case, He, in the exercise of
His prophetic office, could not commission them as
His delegates, to do more than was prescribed and
authorized in His commission. If He was sent not to do
His own will, not to speak of Himself, but to speak only
the words given Him, put in His mouth by the Father,
then the prophets, teachers, apostles, messengers, whom
He commissioned and sent, could do nothing of their
own will, could utter no words other than those which
He by the inspiration of the Spirit, put into their
mouths. Had they presumed to utter a word in His
name which He had not commanded them to utter,
death was the penalty. That penalty was signally ex-
ecuted in different instances, even upon some who
were not publicly regarded as mere pretenders to the
16 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
sacred office. Thus, " the man of God," who was sent
with a special message from Jehovah to Jeroboam,
1 Kings 13, and in confirmation of whose message a
miracle was wrought, disobeyed in one particular the
command which he had received. He had received
the most express verbal instructions ; but after faith-
fully executing them in part, he was induced by a pre-
tended prophet who " lied unto him," to deviate and
swerve from the immediate verbal directions of Je-
hovah. And, while in the act of disobedience, a mes-
sage from Jehovah was sent to him : " The word of the
Lord came unto the (pretended) old prophet, and he
cried unto the man of God . . . saying, Thus saith the
Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of
the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which
the Lord thy God commanded thee . . . thy carcass shall
not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers." Accord-
ingly a lion slew him, and he was laid in the grave of
the (pretended) prophet who had seduced him.
For another instance, take that of Hananiah, a false
prophet who had predominant influence with Zedekiah
and his princes and people, and who prophesied direct-
ly in opposition to the messages delivered by Jeremiah
from Jehovah. " Then said the prophet Jeremiah un-
to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah ; the
Lord hath not sent thee ; but thou makest this people
to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Be-
hold I will cast thee from off the face of the earth. .
So Hananiah the prophet died." Of the false prophets
as a class, in contradistinction to the true, it is said:
" They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out
of the mouth of the Lord. I have not sent
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 17
these prophets, yet they ran ; I have not spoken to
them, yet they prophesied."
It were to contradict all that is recorded in Scripture
on this subject, to say that the phrases " His words,"
"my words," "the word of the Lord," and the like, in
the foregoing passages and elsewhere, signify doctrines,
ideas, thoughts, apart from words. For the conveyance
of thoughts apart from words is inconceivable ; and the
reception of thoughts otherwise than in words, is con-
trary to the consciousness of all men. Besides, if
thoughts only were conveyed to the minds of the sacred
writers, why did not the text simply express that, in-
stead of asserting that the words came, were given, were
put into their mouths ?
Such being the nature and limitation of their office,
those who exercised it both before and after the advent,
inclusive of the penmen of both Testaments, were alike
bound by its exclusive rule in regard to the source of
what they might utter; and while, in general, they
distinctly recognize that rule, and profess to deliver
only what they received in accordance with it, if there
are historical or poetical books, which have not, in
their contents, such explicit recognition, they are so
connected by quotations with other books that have,
and by their original revelations and predictions, with
the entire collection, that their being found in the can-
on in the days of Ezra, and at the advent, is proof suf-
ficient that each and every penman of them, exercised
that delegated office, which, under the highest sanction,
restricted him to the utterance of those words only,
which he received immediately from God. Moreover,
it may be safely said that there are in every particular
18 THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
book, passages, the very words of which must have
been supernaturally conveyed to the writer. The book
of Genesis, written by Moses, consists wholly of such
passages, of which he could have had neither any per-
sonal nor any historical knowledge, or at best nothing
more than floating popular traditions preserved by the
children of Israel in the utmost degeneracy of their
Egyptian bondage.
It was a distinct and well-defined class of men that
exercised the prophetic office, by special Divine appoint-
ment, under the ancient dispensation. They are styled
prophets and messengers of Jehovah, who in His name
uttered His words ; men of God, as being officially sent
by Him ; men to whom the word of the Lord came, that
is, the words uttered or inspired by Him ; and collective-
ly, His holy prophets, as in the discourse of Peter, " God
hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since
the world began ; " and in his second epistle : " Prophe-
cy came not of old time by the will of man ; but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost."
With this class, as with the apostolic messengers, the
office was for life in each instance, and ceased only,
when, in the one case, the Canon of the Old Testament,
and in the other, that of the New, was completed.
And it is to the men of this class that the penmanship
of the Scriptures of the Old Testament is ascribed ; for
they are collectively referred to and quoted from, as
the Scriptures, the writings, of the Prophets, and Zechariah,
one of the latest of the class, characterizes what had
been previously written, as " the words which the Lord
of hosts Lath sent in His Spirit by the former pro-
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 19
phets." These and the like descriptions and definitions
of those sacred writings, decide them all to be alike the
word of God. To quote from any part of any one of
the books, is to quote the word of God. There is
neither any exception indicated in any one of the books
themselves, nor any room left for exception in the terms
by which, collectively, they are characterized. If ex-
ceptions are assumed by human ignorance and presump-
tion, they are assumed in opposition to the only infalli-
ble evidence and ground of certainty in the case, the
testimony of the Scriptures themselves. It might with
reason be assumed that a book professing to be given
by inspiration of God, for the high and far-reaching
purposes which He had in view, involving His own
glory and the eternal destiny of His creatures, and
confessedly containing revelations, predictions, laws,
promises, from Him, must, in respect to all its contents,
be His word ; — His, where it records His own eternal
counsels and His acts of creation, providence, and grace,
and His, where the facts of human history, and the
very words spoken by men, angels, and devils, are, with
infallible verity, reproduced and written. As the case
stands, to make an exception, were there room for one,
would require the same supernatural inspiration by
which the whole was given. The case is clear, that so
far as the sacred penmen wrote in their official capacity,
they wrote the very words given them by inspiration
of God. If they wrote any thing otherwise than in
that capacity, any thing merely as men, any thing at
their own discretion, any words of their own selection,
such words are not the words of God, and as honest
men, they should have told us which they were.
20 THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
Thus far, it is, I apprehend, indubitably certain ;
namely, that the prophetic office of Christ the Kevealer
of God, and infallible Teacher of men, restricted Him
to the utterance of those words only which the Father
gave Him — put in His mouth ; that He exercised that
office under the ancient dispensations, from the begin-
ning ; that He exercised it in part by His own imme-
diate vocal utterances, and in part by the mediate in-
strumentality of a succession of men appointed by Him
as His messengers, to utter vocally and in writing, only
the words which He immediately gave them, by the
official agency of the Holy Spirit, inspiring them ver-
bally into their minds, as they uttered them. Some
further evidence, as to their understanding and execu-
tion of this delegated ministerial office as His messen-
gers, may seem to be necessary.
In this collateral aspect of the subject, it is obvious
to begin with Moses, and then to glance at the testimo-
ny of his successors. And it is proper first to notice
that Moses received his call and appointment immedi-
ately from Him, who in His own delegated character,
appeared to him, as often afterwards, enveloped in a
cloudlike flame, under a title of office, signifying mes-
senger, as in Malachi 3:1, though here translated angel,
as it is in some scores of instances where it designates
the same official person, and as an official title is em-
ployed interchangeably with the Divine names which
are appropriate to the respective persons of the God-
head as declaratory, not of their offices, but simply of
their Deity. The Messenger Jehovah, the Messenger
of the Covenant, (Mai. 3,) Jehovah the Son, in His
delegated character, as the Messenger of the Father,
THE PEOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 21
sent to declare and execute Ills will, immediately by
His own personal agency, and mediately through
prophets, apostles, messengers delegated and sent by
Him — appeared to Moses in a flame of fire, out of the
midst of a bush And Moses said, I will
now turn aside and see this great sight. . . . And
when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, Elohim
called unto him out of the midst of the bush. . . .
And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of
Abraham, etc. . . . And Moses hid his face, for
he was afraid to look upon the Elohim. . . . And
Jehovah said, I have seen the affliction of my people
which are in Egypt. . . . And lam come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, etc.
Come now, therefore, and / will send thee unto Pharaoh,
that thou mayst bring forth my people out of Egypt.
It is plain that the title and the names above given,
designate the same Divine Person in His delegated
character, and that it was in the immediate exercise of
His personal agency in that character that He appoint-
ed and sent Moses to speak and act in His name ; and
that He personally instructed and directed him in all
the details of his subordinate ministry. In the pro-
gress of the instructions and announcements from the
Messenger Jehovah at this first appearance, Moses in-
terposed a variety of objections to his undertaking the
proffered mission ; and among others that of his not
being a fluent speaker. " And the Lord said unto him,
Who hath made man's mouth ? or who maketh the
dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have
not I, the Lord ?" Have not I, the Creator, Preserver,
and Euler of all creatures, given man the faculty of
22 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
speech ? " Now therefore, go, and I will be with thy
mouth, and teach ihee what thou shall say" Moses still
demurring, Jehovah condescended to appoint Aaron
to sustain precisely the same office in relation to MoseSj
that He appointed Moses to sustain towards Himself.
The same words which He should speak to Moses,
Moses was to speak to Aaron, and Aaron to Pharaoh
and the people. " Thou shalt speak unto him, and
put words in his mouth : and I will be with thy mouth
and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall
do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people :
and he shall be, even he shall be to ihee instead of a mouth,
and thou shalt be to him, instead of God" A more
precise description, or emphatic limitation, of the office,
by which the incumbent was to utter no other than
the words put into his mouth by the Superior who ap-
pointed him, can be conceived or expressed in human
language.
I need not say, or confirm by any extended refer-
ences, that Moses exercised his ministry to the day of
his death, in conformity to this description and limita-
tion. In general, what he uttered is prefaced by " the
Lord said unto Moses," or other equivalent formulas.
When he wrote, the Holy Spirit, as immediate Author
and Inspirer of the Scriptures to be the instrument of
His own official agency in the illumination, renovation,
and sanctification of men, conveyed to his mind, real-
ized to his consciousness, precisely what he should
write.
There is an inherent incongruity and absurdity in
supposing that the immediate Messenger of the Father,
and the inferior messengers appointed by Him, should
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 23
be limited to the vocal utterance of the very words
given to them respectively, and that the inferior mes-
sengers, when called to write, should be exempt from
such limitation, and left to exercise any, the smallest
discretion, in the choice of thoughts or words, to be
published for the instruction, and as the infallible rule
of faith and life, of all nations, during all times, and
the rule of final judgment and eternal retribution !
With what jealous care this specialty of the prophetic
office was guarded, and with what severity infringe-
ments of it were avenged, is manifest not only in the
destruction of individuals, and of whole companies of
the professed prophets of Baal, from time to time, but
in the signal retribution miraculously visited upon the
aspirants and usurpers of the office of Moses during his
personal ministry. Thus when "Miriam and Aaron
spake against Moses, . . . and said, Hath the
Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not
spoken also by us? The Lord heard it and spake
suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miri-
am, Come out, ye three unto the tabernacle of the con-
gregation. And they three came out. And the Lord
came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the
door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam :
and they both came forth. And He said, Hear now
my words : if there be a prophet among you," — that is,
a prophet in the ordinary sense of that word — "I the
Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision,
and will speak unto him in a dream." — As He often did
to the prophets of subsequent times, — " My servant Mo-
ses is not so" — not a mere prophet, but represents me as
Head of the civil and ritual, as well as the prophetic
2-i THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
administration, — "who is faithful in all my house.
"With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even appar-
ently, and not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of
the Lord shall he behold : wherefore then were ye not
afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? And the
anger of the Lord was kindled against them ; and He
departed. And the cloud departed from off the taber-
nacle ; and behold Miriam became leprous as white as
snow," etc. (Numbers 12.) And when Korah and his
confederates rebelled, " and gathered themselves togeth-
er against Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto
them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the con-
gregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is
among them : wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord ?" . . . "Moses
said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me
to" do all these works ; for I have not done them of
mine own mind. If these men die the common death
of all men . . . then the Lord hath not sent me ;
but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open
her mouth and swallow them up, . . . then ye
shall understand that these men have provoked the
Lord. And it came to pass as he made an end of
speaking all these words, that the ground clave asun-
der that was under them . . . and swallowed
them up, and their houses, and all that appertained to
them." The next day, the whole "congregation mur-
mured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Ye have
killed the people of the Lord ;" when by a supernatu-
ral influence fourteen thousand and seven hundred of
them were instantly destroyed. (Numb. 16.)
Thus the law of the prophetic office, as limiting the
THE PKOPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 25
prophet to the utterance only of the words put into his
mouth, as the messenger of Jehovah, was established,
and vindicated, and rendered obligatory, and impera-
tive, on pain of death, on all who were appointed to
that office ; and as such it was understood and acknow-
ledged by the successive prophets after Moses. By this
law, they were, from its nature, origin, and object, as
necessarily subject to the verbal inspiration of the
Spirit in what they uttered in writing, as they were to
the audible utterances of Jehovah in what they vocally
delivered in His name. He therefore spoke directly to
them, commanded them to repeat His words, put His
words into their mouth, taught them, prescribed to
them what they should say. His word, His articulate
utterance, whether of prediction, or narrative, precept,
or promise, encouragement or threatening, came to
them, not at their will and pleasure, but as passive re-
cipients.
Accordingly, the Lord, by His own articulate vocal
utterance, called Samuel to the prophetic office ; " ap-
peared to him, and revealed Himself to him by the word
of the Lord ;" spoke to him directly on various occasions,
and specifically directed him what to say, what words
to speak ; and he spoke in the name of the Lord the
words which he received from Him. When, by im-
mediate Divine direction, he anointed David to be king,
"the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that
day forward." David, at the close of his career as head
of the civil administration, and as a prophet, psalmist,
and sacred writer, said : { The Spirit of the Lord spake
by me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of
Israel said, the Eock of Israel spake to me."
2
26 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
The word of the Lord came on successive occasions
to Elijah, and he as often delivered the verbal messages
which he had received. At length, by express com-
mand of Jehovah he anointed Elisha to be prophet in
his stead, who also received and uttered special mes-
sages from Jehovah. Micaiah, a true prophet, being
importuned to concur with the false prophets of Ahab,
said, though threatened with imprisonment and suffer-
ing, " As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto
me, that will I speak." Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
the twelve minor prophets, each, from paragraph to
paragraph, describes what he wrote, as immediately
from Jehovah. Daniel, in part, received verbal com-
munications through the intermediate agency of the
angel Gabriel. By what minute provisions, and special
acts and arrangements, the prophets were selected,
raised up, qualified, appointed and sent, though not
particularly specified in every instance, may be seen
by reference to the case of one or two of them. Thus
Jeremiah, chap. 1 : " The word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Before I formed thee, I knew thee, and be-
fore thou wast born, I sanctified, and I ordained thee
a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord
God, behold I can not speak, for I am a child. But
the Lord said unto me, Say not I am a child : for thou
shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I shall
command thec, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their
faces : for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the
Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched
my mouth ; and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have
put my words in thy mouth." Jeremiah, accordingly,
from time to time, spoke the very words which Jeho-
THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST. 27
vah spoke immediately to him. When he wrote, he
employed Baruch as his scribe, as Aaron was employed
as the spokesman of Moses. " And Baruch wrote from
the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord,
which He had spoken unto him." (Jer. 36.) Those
words which he so wrote on one particular occasion,
comprised the verbal utterances of Jehovah to him
during the preceding score of years, the recalling of
which therefore, so as to dictate them with infallible
accuracy, we may justly, and with confidence, ascribe
to the inspiration of them into his mind, by the Holy
Spirit, as he uttered them to Baruch. Again, with
respect to the great contemporary of Jeremiah, who
was called to the prophetic office from among the cap-
tives in Chaldea. " The word of the Lord came ex-
pressly to Ezekiel ... by the river Chebar ; and
the hand of the Lord was there upon him." To fit
him for the service to which he was called, he first
had a vision of the Messenger Jehovah as seated on a
throne. " Upon the likeness of the throne, was the
likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
. . This was the appearance of the likeness of the
glory of Jehovah. And when I saw it, I fell upon my
face, and I heard a voice of One that spake. And He
said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I
will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me
when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet,
that I heard Him that spake unto me. And He said
unto me, Son of man, I send thee unto the children of
Israel. . . . And thou shalt speak my words unto
them, whether they will hear, or whether they will for-
bear." Next, to show him unmistakably, the nature
28 THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OF CHRIST.
and limit of his prophetic office, the voice from the
throne said : " Hear what I say unto thee, . . eat
that I give thee. And when I looked, behold an hand
was sent unto me ; and lo, a roll of a book was therein,
and He spread it before me ; and it was written within
and without. . . . Moreover, He said unto me,
Son of man, eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house
of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me
to eat that roll. . . . And He said unto me, Son
of man, go. get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak
wiifi my words unto them, ... all my words that
I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear
with thine ears. ... I have made thee a watch-
man unto the house of Israel, therefore hear the word
at my mouth. . . . When I speak with thee, I
will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God." (Ezek. 1-3.)
Isaiah was called, instructed, and sent, in a similar
manner. He saw the Lord, the Messenger Jehovah, in
the form of man, sitting upon a throne, and, over-
whelmed with a sense of his own corruption, and un-
worthiness he said : " Mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Hosts. . . . Also I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us ? Then said I, Here am I ; send me. And He
said, Go," etc. (Isa. 6.) It was Christ whose glory he
saw, and who spoke to him, and commissioned him as
His messenger. (See John 12.) Daniel, also, saw the
same Divine person, in the likeness of the Son of Man.
(Danl. 7.) And Amos, when about to utter some spe-
cial and most important prediction, says : "I saw the
Lord standing upon the altar : and He said, Smite the
lintel of the door that the posts may shake." (Amos 9.)
THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 29
III. OF THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT, IN KELATION
TO THE SCRIPTURES.
A consideration of the Office of the Holy Spirit
in the economy of redemption, will lead us to the
same results in respect to the nature and limitation of
the prophetic office of Christ, and of the subordinate
office of His messengers, the prophets of the Old, and
the apostles of the New Testament. It is according to
the teachings of Scripture, and according to the faith
of the Church of God in all ages, that the three Per-
sons of the Godhead subsisted eternally as persons, co-
equal in nature, and independently of all external
works, manifestations, and relations towards creatures.
And it is no less evident from the teachings of Scrip-
ture, its revelations, and its record of facts and events,
in the progress of the Divine dispensations, and of the
redemption, sanctification, and perpetuation of the
Church, that those Persons entered into a covenant,
prior to, and concerning the works of creation, provi-
dence, and grace, that is, all external works, as being
foreordained before the foundation of the world, and
centering in the chiefest of them, the work of redemp-
tion : and that on the basis of such covenant, and in
reference to the execution of it, in and throughout all
the ages of time, they assumed official relations towards
each other, and towards the creatures that were to be
brought into existence ; so that, while they remain
three Persons in one essence and one will, their acts to-
wards the dependent universe are personal and official
acts, arising from their official relations. Hence the
30 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Scripture names and designations which refer exclu-
sively to the Divine nature are common to them all,
while each of them, in His official character and rela-
tions, is referred to by distinctive titles and appellations,
not appropriated to the others. Thus the Father offi-
cially represents the will of the Godhead which is exe-
cuted by the Son and the Spirit in respect to all the
works in question. The Son is officially subordinate
to the Father, the immediate Messenger of the covenant,
the primary agent in the execution of the Father's will,
and the accomplishment of those works. And the
Spirit is officially subordinate to the Father and the
Son, and is sent by them and either of them, as the Son
is sent by the Father.
The office of the Spirit is therefore specific and lim-
ited, as that of a Messenger of the Father and the Son.
It can not transcend that will of the Father which the
Son was commissioned to reveal and execute, nor be
otherwise than subordinate to the official prerogative
of the Son. In a word, then, if the Son, as the Messen-
ger of the Father, eould do no act not prescribed by
Him, and could utter no word not given or dictated
by Him, and if He could not commission and send as
His official messengers — the prophets and apostles — to
do more than His own commission authorized, it fol-
lows clearly that the Spirit in executing His official
agency, is limited by the same conditions as the Son.
In relation to the words of Scripture, therefore, He
could utter, inspire into, speak by the mouth of, the
prophetic and apostolic messengers of the Son, only the
very words of the Father and the Son, as they were
given to Him. He could no more assist or guide the
THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 31
sacred writers to utter other words, whether relating to
what they knew before or not, than the Son, as Mes
senger of the Father, sent to speak only His words,
could commission His subordinate ministerial instru-
ments to speak or write other than the words which
He put into their mouths. And if the sacred penmen
actually wrote any other than the words put into their
mouths immediately by -the Son, or mediately, from
the Father or the Son, by the Spirit speaking in and
by them, such words were not the words of God, but
merely the words of men. No conceivable assistance
or guidance could transform them into the words of
God, or bring them within the rule of official prescrip-
tion and authorization. The servant is not greater
than his master.
The official works of the Holy Spirit, in this great
economy, may be classed under several distinct heads.
1. That of inspiring into the minds of the subor-
dinate messengers, prophets, apostles, and evangelists
the words of the Father and of the Son to be uttered,
vocally and in writing by them. This official opera-
tion of the Holy Spirit is largely attested with refer-
ence to the Scriptures collectively. It is variously
described as teaching the sacred writers, giving them
what they were to utter, speaking in them and by them,
revealing the truths of the Gospel to them.
2. That of quickening, regenerating, illuminating,
sanctifying the souls of men. In this He employs as
His instrument the word of God, and that only — the
words of Scripture, of all and every part of Scripture —
32 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
the words which He Himself had spoken by the mouths
of prophets and apostles. These are the preexistent
seeds and germs which He plants in the heart and
quickens into faith and life — the words by which
faith cometh, the words of life, the sword of the Spirit,
the word of God.
3. That of operating miraculously on physical and
intellectual natures. Thus the Spirit of God came
upon Saul and also upon his messengers, producing ef-
fects, apparently on their bodies and their minds. (1
Saml. 10.) Ezekiel says : " The Spirit lifted me up and
took me away, and I went in bitterness," etc. The
Spirit caught away Philip, after he had baptized the
eunuch, and he was found at Azotus. (Acts 8.)
The miraculous gifts conferred on the apostles and on
others on the day of Pentecost, and afterwards, for
special purposes, and during a limited period, are to be
classed under this head. The gifts of tongues, of in-
terpreting tongues, of discerning spirits, and others,
were peculiar to that period, and had no connection
whatever with the origin, bestowment, or writing, of
any part of the Scriptures.
The words of Christ are the words of the Father by
Him as sent of the Father. The words of the Spirit
which constitute the Scriptures, are the words of the
Father and the Son, by Him, as sent by them* As
communicated by God the Spirit, and written, they are
the words of God in the same sense as the verbal dis-
courses of God the Son were His words. It was the
office of the Spirit as sent by the Father and the Son,
to utter the words of Scripture in writing, through the
THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 33
instrumentality of the sacred penmen; as it was the
office of the Son, as sent of the Father, audibly to speak
His words to the patriarchs, to Moses and others, un-
der the former, and to His disciples and the Jewish
people under the present dispensation.
It was to supply, to the disciples, the apostles, and
the Church, the place of Christ's personal presence and
teachings after His resurrection and ascension, that the
official agency of the Spirit was promised and exerted,
as it was vouchsafed and exerted towards the pro-
phets and sacred penmen of the Old Testament.
That official agency was' as necessary, and as much a
provision of the eternal covenant, to Enoch, Noah, the
patriarchs, Moses, and all the prophets after him, as to
the apostles and evangelists of the New Testament. It
was a part of the works towards creatures, by which
the will of the Father was executed. Therefore, when
about to withdraw as to His local, personal presence
and ministry, Christ said, " The Comforter," that is,
the Paraclete, the Monitor, or Teacher, " which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance" — realize anew to your conscious-
ness— " whatsoever I have said unto you." " When
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which pro-
ceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me. . .
When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide
you into all truth : for He shall not speak of Himself;
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak ; and
He shall show you things to come. He shall glorify
me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto
34 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
you. All tilings that the Father hath are mine : there-
fore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show
it unto you. It is expedient for you that I go away ;
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you ; but if I depart, / will send Him unto you." (John
14-16.) Such is the express commission and office of
the Spirit, as Messenger of the Father and Son, delega-
ted to speak not of Himself, not His own words, but
only the words of the Father and Son. As the words
which thevSon spoke, were, 1, the words of the Father,
officially representing the Godhead, and 2d, His words,
as having received them in His delegated character
from the Father ; so the words which the Spirit offi-
cially spoke, recalled, inspired into the minds of the apos-
tles and sacred writers, were the words of Christ as re-
ceived by Him, and of the Father primarily prescribing
them as the will of the self-existent, eternal, invisible
Deity. They are, therefore, in the most absolute and
exclusive sense, the words of God — the published, irre-
vocable, infallible declarations — in the only form adapt-
ed to intelligent creatures, of Himself, of His will, of
His relations, of the rules and measures of His admin-
istration, and the rules of human faith and conduct ;
His words, not to men only, but to the whole universe :
not for time only, but for all the future of His kingdom :
the instrument of all spiritual influences ; the basis on
which all holy intelligences in heaven and earth, are
at length to be united.
He who denies this delegated office of the Spirit, in
relation to the words of Scripture, must equally deny the
delegated office of Christ in relation to the words, audi-
bly spoken by Him : and he who holds to and believes
•THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION. 35
in the reality and limitation of these offices in respect
to the New Testament economy, must equally believe
in them in respect to the Old. For in this respect the
two economies are identical, founded on the same cov-
enant, parts of the same system, executed by the same
Divine Persons, in the same relations, and issuing in the
same specific result, the publication of the Word of God
in writing.
IV. THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION.
The way is thus prepared, to show what is the na-
ture of Divine Inspiration ; and I define it to be an
act of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, by which
He breathed into the mind of the sacred writers, the
words which they uttered in writing. Or, in other
words : It is an act of the Holy Spirit, in His dele-
gated official capacity, by which He conveyed into the
minds of the holy prophets and sacred writers, the
words of God, as they uttered them vocally and in
writing.
This is clearly contained in the Spirit's commission
as Teacher of all things, remembrancer of all that
Christ had spoken, exhibitor of things to come, and of
all things relating to the Father and the Son. The
word Inspiration signifies an act of breathing into —
inspiring words into the mind by an act resembling
that of inspiring air into the lungs. This is its only
meaning as used in Scripture. The Scriptures speak
of this, and of no other kind of inspiration. It is an
act by which something is conveyed from one person
36 THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION.
to another ; and in Scripture is often understood and
implied where the word itself is not inserted. But it
is inserted where a general affirmation is made, con-
cerning the entire Scriptures as the Word of God. As
(2 Tim. 3:16) " All Scripture is given ~by Inspiration
of God" All Scripture, all the words written in the
holy books — given, imparted, conveyed by inspiration
— the act of God the Spirit breathing them into the
minds of the writers : equivalent to saying, all the
words which God in the person of the Father, saw
fit, and determined to have written as His, on His au-
thority, in His name, as the infallible rule of faith and
life to His rational creatures, He in the Person of the
Holy Ghost, conveyed immediately by inspiration to
the intelligent consciousness of those whom He ap-
pointed to write them.
When this inspired affirmation was uttered by the
pen of Paul, the canon of Old Testament Scriptures
had long been settled, and at least two, and probably
three of the Gospels, all the other Epistles of Paul,
those of Peter, and probably the whole New Testa-
ment, except the Gospel, Epistles, and Eevelation of
John, had been written and were extant ; and there
can be no reason assigned why Paul should not have
included these writings in all Scripture given by in-
spiration, which would not equally have prevented
Peter, in his second Epistle, referring to all the Epis-
tles of Paul as containing things which the ignorant
and unstable wrested, as they did also the other Scrip-
tures, to their own destruction. What was meant by
the Scripture, the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God,
was, at least, as correctly understood at that period as
THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION. 37
it is at present. They are quoted and referred to by
the New Testament writers, as the Word of God,
spoken by the Spirit, by the mouth of the writers.
Thus in Heb. 3, the writer, after contrasting Christ as
the Son over His own house, and as the Apostle, that
is, the Messenger, with Moses, who was faithful as a
servant, adds: "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,
1 To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation
in the wilderness,' " etc. This is taken from the ninety-
fifth Psalm, where there is no verbal reference to the
Spirit, and we only know of this as of the other
Psalms, that the Spirit spake by the writer. And
Stephen, (Acts 7,) when charging his accusers of hav-
ing persecuted the Prophets, and with not having kept
the Law which they had received by the instrumen-
tality of Messengers, says : "Ye stiff-necked and uncir-
cumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye." They
resisted the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures by
the mouth of the Prophets and Messengers of Jehovah.
Again, Acts 1, " Peter stood up in the midst of the
disciples, and said, Men and brethren, this Scripture
must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost,
by the mouth of David, spake before concerning
Judas. . . . For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
' Let his habitation be desolate,' " etc. See Psalm 109,
where, however, there is no allusion to the Spirit.
The foregoing is, I apprehend, in harmony with all
that we are taught in Script are concerning the person,
offices, and agencies of the Holy Spirit. His acts are
official acts. The terms by which he is distinguished,
38 THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION.
are titular, official designations. The word Spirit pri-
marily signifies breath, air, and was with obvious pro-
priety, appropriated to signify that essence and life
which is invisible and omnipresent. God is a Spirit.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are in essence
the same. But in their official relations and agencies,
each is distinguished by titles not common to the
others. These titles indicate the peculiar offices and
works of the respective persons. The offices and works
of the Holy Spirit, include the inspiration of the
Scriptures, and then the use of the words of Scripture,
as His exclusive instrument, in convincing the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; in teaching,
renewing, and sanctifying men ; in working in them
repentance, faith, and obedience; applying to them
the benefits of the redemption purchased by Christ,
turning them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God, working in them to will
and to do the works of righteousness, sealing and pre-
serving them to the day of final redemption. It is not
by new revelations that He accomplishes these results,
but by the written Word of God, which He Himself
breathed into the sacred writers ; His own word, the
instrument of His officially subordinate agency. Hence
the qualifying epithets by which He is distinguished
with reference to His peculiar works. As the Author
of the Holy Scriptures, and of all holiness in man,
He is denominated the Holy Spirit ; as Teacher, the
Spirit of Truth, whom the world can not receive — the
Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father;
and in various relations, the Spirit of Holiness, the
Spirit of Faith, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ.
THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION. 39
Of Him it is affirmed, that men are born or the
Spirit; that they are chosen to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth ;
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ ; that they are
led, taught, guided by the Spirit.
It is thus apparent that the official agency of the
Spirit is founded in the eternal covenant, and is co-
extensive with the work of redemption, in its details,
its efficacious application, and its final issues. From
the beginning, all revelations of the Father's will, as
they were uttered by the voice or pen of subordinate
human messengers, were immediately inspired into
their minds by the Spirit as they uttered them. This
was His office as much with respect to every portion
as to any portion of the sacred oracles. They are the
words of God, conveyed, breathed into, realized to the
consciousness of men, by the Holy Spirit. If Enoch was
a holy man, the Spirit changed his heart and made
him so. If he uttered predictions concerning the mur-
murers and time-servers of the present dispensation,
and the yet future coming of Christ with His holy
myriads to execute judgment upon all the ungodly,
they were inspired into his mind by the Holy Spirit,
as they were into the mind of Jude as he wrote them.
There is, I rest assured, no legitimate, no consistent,
no Scriptural view of the subject but this. And in
my judgment there are no difficulties incident to this
view, at all comparable to the manifold and insur-
mountable difficulties which pervade and confound
the views of those who treat of an influence on the
40 THE NATURE OF DIVINE INSPIKATION.
faculties of men as what they understand by inspira-
tion, and hold to various kinds and degrees of that
influence.
There is, so to speak, eternal and infinite harmony,
consistency, propriety; order, system, proportion;
reason, intelligence, 'wisdom; beauty, excellency,
love, in all the counsels, acts, and ends of the Triune
God, all the relations and agencies of the persons of
the Godhead. These qualities of Divine perfection
are, by the Spirit, disclosed to the faith which is of
His operation, in the Holy Scriptures. And they are
verbally disclosed to all as far as that was possible, in
the words given by inspiration of the Spirit, concern-
ing the eternal counsels and covenant, the offices and
relations, the administrations and acts, of the respec-
tive persons of the Godhead. In what is ascribed to
them respectively, there is no confusion, no interfer-
ence with each other, no defect as to the final issue.
To the Holy Spirit pertained all that relates to the
communication of the will of God to man, in the sa-
cred writings, the written word of God.
It is obvious to remark, that upon this doctrine of Di-
vine Inspiration, and this view of the whole case, de-
pends the theory, the doctrine, the ordinance, the instru-
mentality of the ministry of the Gospel. The ministers
of the Gospel are called and commissioned to preach,
not philosophy, not their own wisdom, not any human
system, not what the office and commission of prophets
and apostles forbid their preaching, but the word of
God as written by them by inspiration of the Spirit, as
the infallible standard of truth, and rule of faith and
practice. The standard, the rule, the truth itself is
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 41
extant, and unalterably fixed in the inspired writings.
To go aside from these, to add to them, to detract from
them, is at their peril. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them.
They are committed to writing to be the fixed, per-
manent, unalterable standard to all the subordinate
messengers of the Spirit whom He makes overseers,
teachers, ministers, in His work of calling, regenerating,
and sanctifying men. He who preaches the word
which he inspired, preaches that which is His instru-
ment in the renovation and sanctification of men. If
any man preach any other Gospel than that which
Paul preached, not in his own words, but in the words
which the Spirit taught him, " let him be accursed."
(Gal. 1 : 9.) " If any man shall take away from the
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the Book of Life," etc. (See
Eevelation 22 : 19.)
Y. WERE THE VERY WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED TO
THE SACRED WRITERS BY INSPIRATION ?
But the question very naturally arises, Is it indeed
the very words of Scripture upon which so much stress
is laid ? Are we bound to believe that the words of
the original texts of the Holy Scriptures are the words
of God, as truly as if He had audibly dictated them to
the writers ? Supposing even that all the thoughts —
not merely those concerning Original Kevelations, but
all that might be naturally known to men — were spe-
cially selected and communicated to the Sacred Writers,
42 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
is it necessary to suppose that all the words also were
communicated, and that they wrote those very words,
and had no discretion whatever in the choice of words ?
Human wisdom is gravelled and stumbled at this : as
though it were unworthy of the Creator and Lawgiver
of men, the Author of language, and Maker of man's
mouth, or impossible to Him, to cause His own words
to be written as the fixed and permanent expression of
His thoughts, and the infallible rule of human faith
and life. Good men, even the best of men, and the
best of critics and commentators, while with respect to
every particular passage of Scripture, they believe in
their hearts that it is the "Word of God, as really as
any other passage, and quote, criticise, and comment
on it as such, nevertheless are reserved, hesitating,
non-committal, as to any explicit declaration concern-
ing the whole.
Take for example the critical work of Dr. Stier, en-
titled " The Words of the Lord Jesus," of which it is
the object " to unfold the meaning and harmony of all
the recorded words which fell from the lips of the Word
made flesh." The very definition of what he under-
took to do, and every sentence of his elaborate, and
in point of evangelical excellence, unequalled exege-
sis, implies that he most firmly believed that the re-
corded words were the very words of Christ. He as-
sumed that, he believed it, he, time and again, asserts
it : without that, his work had no basis, his labor no
object, his conclusions no authority. The question
met him at the outset, " Have we these words just as
He spoke them ?" " This," he answers, " is the ques-
tion of modern criticism, which refuses to take for
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 43
granted what should, however, be taken for granted
by all who believe in a Kevelation by the Son of God ;
namely, that His words can not have fallen to the
ground, can not have dropped and been lost through
the sieve of erring human composition. Yes, we pos-
sess that ivliich He spake ! Not indeed in the letter of
the verba ipsissima, but through the mediating witness
of the Evangelists, elevated in the Spirit. Yet are
they truly and essentially the ipsissima, as His teaching
for the world and the Church." This answer is good
for the heart, but not sufficient, or in point, for the
understanding. It leaves that unexplained to which
the question relates ; and advances an inference from
premises, which, not being self-evident, are to be taken
for granted. Then as to the very words, there is an
indefiniteness, an uncertainty, which gives scope and
point to the question. But if they are not His words
verbatim et literatim, why should the words themselves
be criticised and expounded as His ? If they are not
in that sense His words, how can a critical exegesis of
them show that what they signify is identical with what
was signified by the words which he actually uttered ?
If they are not His words in that literal sense, but yet
contain His teaching for the world and the Church,
why not pass by the words and criticise the teaching
only ? But says the author, u His words can not have
fallen to the ground, can not have dropped and been
lost through the sieve of erring human composition ;"
as if the words recorded were the very words that had
been vocally uttered ; and as if the writers, in record-
ing them, had been supernaturally withheld from los-
ing them, and preserved from error in writing. But
44 WOKDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIKATION.
if the Evangelists were compositors, or Lad any discre-
tion, or any thing whatever to do with selecting out
of all that was spoken by Christ, what they should
respectively write, how did it happen that one wrote
so much more than others of them, and that altogether
they recorded so small a portion of the words uttered
by Him in the hearing of the disciples ? How came
they actually to drop, omit, leave unrecorded an inde-
finitely large proportion of all that the Saviour did and
said ? (See John 20 : 30 ; 21 : 25.) Either they are
His words in the same sense as all the words of Scrip-
ture are the words of God, as having been audibly
uttered or verbally inspired by Him, or they are merely
the words of the Evangelist compositors, and should
be expounded as such. The author's faith is right ;
but his explanation for the guidance of others to the
same result, falters and fails. Practically and experi-
mentally, by way of accounting for his " rigid adher-
ence to the written word," he says: "I read the
canonical text of the Bible, as written through the
Holy Ghost; but I so read it, not because I have
framed for myself any inspiration dogma, .... but
because this word approves itself with ever-increasing
force as inspired to my reason, which, though not in-
deed sound, is through the virtue of that word daily
recovering soundness. It is because this living Word
in a thousand ways has directed, and is ever directing,
my inner being, with all its intelligence, thought, and
will, that I have subjected to it the freedom of my
whole existence." But he adds an explanation which
seems substantially to express, and really to involve,
what I am endeavoring to inculcate respecting the
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 45
office-work of the Spirit in conveying to the Sacred
writers the very words which they wrote : " The
great and fundamental deficiency of nearly all learned
exegesis, with which mine must forever differ, is its
misapprehension of the depth and fullness of meaning
which, in accordance with its higher nature, necessari-
ly belongs to every word of the Spirit. Though be-
lieved to be the word of God, it is treated superficially
and on principles of partial and one-sided deduction,
just as if it were the word of man. In the endeavor to
understand it, that depth is not explored where, from
the one root of the sensus simplex, the richest fullness of
references spring up and ramify in such a manner,
that what upon the ground and territory of its imme-
diate historical connection, presents one definitely ap-
prehended truth as the kernel of its meaning, does
nevertheless expand itself into an inexhaustible variety
of senses for the teaching of the world in all ages, and
especially in the Church, where the Holy Spirit Him-
self continues to unfold His germinal word, even to the
end of the days. While this applies to every word of
the Spirit in its several measure, to the words of the Word,
it applies without measure, to an extent which eternity
only will disclose! .... The preparatory prophetic
word finds its end and goal in the word of Christ : the
apostolical word rests upon Him as its foundation, is
in Him already in its rudiments performed As
to those who believe in the Lord, and yet through a
pernicious pseudo-science, either can not or will not
bow to that miracle of the Holy Ghost — the sure trans-
mission of His life and words in the Gospels, which are
the central word in the whole invisible Scripture, may
46 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
the Spirit of Truth bear more and more convincingly
His own witness to His own testimony, which tolerates
no correction of man." (Stier. Preface, vol. i., Lon-
don Ed.) Again in his critical comments : " Which,
then, out of the multitude of His words, should be
committed to record for the world and the Church ?
.... The selection and arrangement were not left
with man, but were the prerogative of the Holy Spirit,
concerning whom the Lord's promise was, * He shall
glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and show
it unto you.' "...." We find in the Gospels a pre-
liminary series of first words, which the Spirit has
selected as the most critical in their occurrence, and
most distinctive in their expression The Lord
did actually thus speak them, but His Spirit alone
could with perfect fidelity reproduce them in the
Scripture, and hand them over to the Church."
" The Evangelists, according to the wisdom of the
Holy Ghost, were under the necessity of distributing
in portions what was allotted to them to record. . . .
How familiarly the Lord's thought and language
attach themselves to those Old Testament typical expres-
sions in which the spirit had already prophetically
exhibited all the germs of the New Testament com-
munication. . . . We have through the intervention
of the Holy Ghost, the entire actual Sermon on the
Mount, which we may hear and understand even as it
was spoken by the Lord Himself, . . . the Spirit
of Christ Himself, who spake by the prophets,
expounds and opens to us by the mouth of Jesus
and His apostles, His own fore- written word; and
bears witness to it as now first fulfilled, and now first
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 47
accessible in its full and consummate meaning, to our
understanding. We can not penetrate too deeply into
the words of the Holy Ghost, specially can not we
hold too firmly by the principle, that the quotations
and expositions of the Old Testament in the New,
give to us the right key for their interpretation."
These are samples of his spontaneous deliverances,
from time to time, in the progress of his exegesis of
the very words of Christ as reproduced in the writings
of the Evangelists. Yet, turning again to his Preface,
we find him reserved as to his doctrinal or theoretical
view of inspiration, and impatient at the abuse heaped
upon him by the non-verbalists and deniers of any
real inspiration of the Scriptures. " I hold fast," he
says, " the rigid inspiration of the Word in which we
find and possess the Christ, yet not in the mechanical
fashion of that orthodoxy which seems sometimes to
gaze in blank amazement at Him who was born of
woman, as if He had fallen from heaven in his swad-
dling-clothes ; this I must finally and most earnestly
beg every one to observe, on account of the persevering
injustice with which I have been treated on this particular ."
To which he adds in a note to his second edition :
" This unjust treatment still continues — eight years after
this was first written. Probably I may be able to ex-
hibit, after a while, more clearly, in what way my rigid
and yet not mechanical view of Inspiration is on either
hand distinguished from the old and the new doctrine."
But have we indeed, as recorded in the -Gospels, the
very words of Christ ? The difficulties which critics
and expositors find in this question are not resolved
by any of their theories of explanation. What relates
48 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
to the difference of expression in the details of the
same narratives by different Evangelists, is now as far
from being satisfactorily accounted for, as at any for-
mer period. Yet the Gospels are the word of God.
The original text claims to give the words of Christ.
The different expressions in parallel passages do not
indeed involve any contradictions. But in recording
the same fact, one Evangelist employs more words
than another, and to some extent different words;
each, however, when relating what was said by Christ,
professing to give his words. To impute this to differ-
ent degrees of accuracy in the memories of the differ-
ent writers, to their ignorance, their carelessness, or
any other imperfection in them, can not be satisfactory
to any one ; even with respect to what two of them
personally heard from the lips of Christ, and saw of
His acts ; and much less of the other two, who were
not original witnesses of His words or works. What
was their authority for recording as the words of
Christ, different words from those relating to the same
fact, which the other writers record as having been
heard by them? Be it that the different words in
each instance are of the same significance, how came
they to employ different words as the words of Christ
in any instance ? The fact that they did this, stands
out conspicuously on the record, and must in some
way be consistent with the Divine authority and in-
fallibility of the original text. To say that the Evan-
gelists wrote under a Divine influence assisting them
in the exercise of their faculties — " an influence on
their understandings, imaginations, memories, and
other mental powers" — an influence of "superintend-
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 49
ence, elevation, direction, guidance, suggestion," can
in no degree serve to obviate this difficulty ; but on
the contrary, aggravates it. To suppose one writer to
be divinely guided to use certain words in a particular
sentence vocally uttered by Christ, and another writer
to be guided to use other words in his record of the
same sentence, under color of their having been the
words which He actually uttered, must appear to every
one to be contradictory and impossible.
The attempts to account for the fact in question, that
have fallen in my way, whether by rationalists, who
suppose the writers not to have been under any super-
natural influence whatever, and to have been not
learned but ignorant men ; or by those who suppose
them to have been assisted by a supernatural influence
on their faculties, appear to me in no respect to abate,
but greatly to enhance this difficulty. That which the
latter class allege as influence, and call inspiration, is
not inspiration in the sense of Scripture ; it is assist-
ance rendered to man in the exercise of his natural
faculties ; Divine assistance alleged to account for what
on the face of it, appears plainly inconsistent and
contradictory.
To account for this seeming difficulty, we must recur
to the prophetic office of Christ ; and to His exercise
of that office through the agency of the Holy Spirit,
sent by Him to inspire His words into the minds of
the sacred writers, as He Himself was sent by the
Father to speak His words. That in this relation it
was the office of the Holy Spirit to teach, renew the
conscious memory of, convey by inspiration to, the
Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostolic Messengers of
3
50 WOfiDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
Christ, His words, to be uttered vocally or in writing,
by them, appears to me to be as clearly evident from
Scripture, as that He had officially any relation what-
ever to the sacred writings, or to the authoritative and
infallible utterances of prophets and apostles. There-
fore it is, that the canonical Scriptures, all that the ap-
pointed Messengers wrote officially, is, in the nature
of the case, and by the declarations of the Scriptures
themselves, the Word of God. This view of the mat-
ter is pointedly confirmed by a circumstance, which
those who mistake influence for inspiration, seem wholly
to overlook, and which is in the last degree incompati-
ble with their doctrine. For how could an influence
on their memories enabling them to recall the words
which they heard from the lips of Christ, supply them
with the very words which they wrote in another and
wholly different language ? It is conceded by all, that
the vocal utterances of Christ, in his personal and pub-
lic addresses, were not in Greek, but in Aramaic, a
form or dialect of the Hebrew language, then com-
mon to the Jews of Palestine. Matthew and John
therefore heard from His lips, not the Greek words
which they wrote, but Hebrew words, which were ver-
nacular to them. Mark and Luke did not even hear
those words themselves ; and if those words were re-
ported to them by those who heard them, still they
are not the Greek words which they wrote. The re-
calling to memory, however accurately, the very words
which Christ had spoken, would not be recalling the
Greek words which they wrote. How then did these
unlearned fishermen become possessed of Greek words
which exactly and infallibly expressed the same
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 51
thoughts which Christ had vocally expressed only in
Hebrew words ? And how are the Greek words which
they actually wrote, His words ?
These questions can not be answered on any theory
of influence on their faculties. But they involve
nothing mysterious or paradoxical, when it is consid-
ered that Christ executed His prophetic office in part
through that official agency of the Holy Spirit by
which He gave to the sacred penmen, word for word,
what He received from Christ for that purpose. "The
Holy Ghost whom I will send, shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you." Though He had spoken
to the Jews in their vernacular tongue, which the com-
mon people understood, He determined to have His
Gospel written and published, at a later period, in the
copious, polished, and established language both of
educated Jews and Gentiles, and to a considerable ex-
tent the most popular language in the cities and prov-
inces of the Eoman Empire. It was intended not for
the Jews except temporarily and as orally delivered ;
but for the nations. The Aramaic, as a vernacular, was
soon to be superseded, as the abrogation of the Leviti-
cal institutions, the destruction of the Temple, and the
conquest and dispersion of the Jewish people, were
soon to happen. Admitting then that His infallible
words were to be given to the nations for all future
time, and that the written words of the Greek text are
His words, as truly as the Hebrew were His by which
He had orally expressed the very same thoughts,
facts, doctrines, promises, threatenings, precepts, pre-
dictions, is there any alternative to the conclusion, or
any room for hesitation in saying that He gave those
52 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
words to the Spirit as His Messenger, sent to convey
them by His act of inspiration to those selected and
appointed to write them ? Is it not apparent that this
was what He was promised, commissioned and sent to
do ? — to teach the subordinate messengers what they
should utter and write in the name and as the words
of Christ ; or, more briefly, Himself to utter by their
mouths and pens, the words received by Him as the
immediate Messenger of Christ, acting in His place
after His personal withdrawment from the scene in
which He directly exercised His office as the Messen-
ger of the Father.
On this view it is obvious and consistent to suppose,
that just those thoughts and words were by the Spirit
conveyed to the respective Evangelists which they
were respectively to utter ; to one concise, to another
more extended narratives of the same events; to
one facts, doctrines, predictions, which were wholly
withheld from the others. Undoubtedly the Divine
Wisdom must have determined these peculiarities.
And now admitting the Greek words to have been the
words of Christ Himself, by the Spirit as His Messen-
ger, so conveyed to the three most unlearned, and the
one least unlearned of the four Evangelists, it is obvi-
ous to consider them unequally qualified by their
knowledge of Greek, to receive and write the same
words to express the same thoughts in every instance.
That in writing they retained the free and intelligent
exercise of their faculties, no one doubts. But to be
consistent with that, the Omniscient llevealer must
have caused such words, in every instance, to be con-
veyed to them as they were qualified to receive and
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 53
understand; and this accounts, on a solid and suffi-
cient footing, for the fact that different words are some-
times employed by the different writers to express the
same thought in the same connection. The promise
that the Spirit " should bring all things to their remem-
brance," can not mean that He should bring the
Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic, or Aramaic words of Christ
to their remembrance in order to their writing them
verbatim as they heard them ; for they did not write
those words. It may mean that He should bring dis-
tinctly to their remembrance the things, facts, events,
to which those words related, so that they might dis-
cern the appropriateness of the Greek words which
they received and wrote. " When the Comforter" —
Teacher, Monitor — " is come whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me. . .
When He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide
you into all truth;" that is, by speaking^ "for He
shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall
hear that shall He speak; and He will show you
things to come. He shall glorify me ; for He shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are mine ; therefore said I
that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto
you. He shall teach you all things, whatsoever I have
said unto you." Now in this promise of the official
agency of the Spirit, the subject is that of teaching,
conveying intelligence in words in a manner equiva-
1 rit to, or identical with, speaking — speaking what, as a
Messenger, He heard — taking the words of Christ, and
showing, imparting them to the apostles. If this was
54 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
not specifically His office in this relation, and in dis-
tinction from His official agency in the renovation and
sanctification of men ; and if the words of Christ were
not so given to Him, and given by His inspiring
agency to the apostles, let those who can, tell us how
the sacred penmen became possessed of what they
wrote, and how what they wrote is the word of God ?
But if such was the office of the Spirit in this relation,
if, in the absence of Christ, the Spirit received what He
intended should be written, and communicated it to
those appointed to write his words — as when called be-
fore magistrates, He taught, imparted to, the apostles
what they should say, at the moment of their utter-
ance— then what they wrote is the infallible word of
God, conveyed to mankind by Christ in the exercise
of his prophetic office through the official agency of
the Spirit sent by Him, and the subordinate agency of
those human messengers whom He appointed to com-
mit His words to writing.
This view, I venture to affirm, accords with all that
is taught us on the subject in the Holy Scriptures, ac-
cording to their verbal and apparent meaning, and ac-
cording to all those researches and expositions of
modern criticism, which treat them as of Divine au-
thority. The Logos from the beginning, the Messenger
Jehovah in the early, the Incarnate Word in the
present dispensation, is the Eevealer of God to the
world, in works and word ; the prime official agent of
all intelligible revelations, communications, and in-
structions. His prophetic offers comprehended and
provided for all the verbal communications ever made
to the human race. He is, in this relation, the Light
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 55
of the World. He fulfilled His prophetic office chiefly,
under the ancient dispensation, by His own direct
agency, till he appointed Prophets to be His messen-
gers ; and under the present dispensation, till He com-
missioned Apostles to be His messengers. The Spirit
conveyed I^s word to prophets and apostles, and
through their subordinate agency to the world. He
maintained His office and prerogative as Eevealer of
the will of God, and teacher of mankind, as part of the
work delegated to Him in virtue of the eternal cove-
nant. The Holy Scriptures so conveyed are therefore
the word of God.
On no other view but this can either the fact that in
parallel passages one Evangelist uses, in particular in
stances, different words from another, nor the far more
striking fact, that, in general, when narrating the same
occurrence, they use precisely the same words, be satis-
factorily accounted for. This coincidence is most re-
markable in the parallel passages of Matthew and
Luke, of whom one had been a disciple and hearer of
Christ, which the other had not. Neither of them
refers to what the other had written, nor is there any
historical evidence or probability that the second of the
two had seen the Gospel of the first. Their identity
of expression is the more remarkable, when we con-
sider that Matthew was a Jew ; Luke a convert from
heathenism : that Matthew wrote his Gospel at Jerusa-
lem ; Luke his about the same time, most probably, at
Eome : that Matthew had it specially in view to show
that Jesus was the Messiah foretold by the prophets,
and to instruct Jewish converts; while Luke had
special reference to converts from heathenism : and,
56 WORDS- OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
lastly, that Luke was, from his education and experi-
ence, a far more accomplishedv writer of Greek than
Matthew. The supposition advanced by some writers,
that they both copied from shorter memoirs, is too
derogatory to the whole subject to be worthy of a
moment's consideration. Every thing relating to the
antecedents, the personal character, and the qualifica-
tions, as well as the verbal coincidences of these
writers, demands our belief that the words which they
wrote were inspired into their minds at the time of
their writing.
Again, let it be observed, that if the Gospel in Hebrew,
to which Jerome and others refer as extant, was writ-
ten by Matthew, as they suppose, for the special use
of believing Jews, it is, according to the. most compe-
tent and reliable writers upon the subject, entirely cer-
tain, from internal evidence, that the Greek Gospel of
Matthew was not a translation from the Hebrew text,
but an independent and original work. And accord-
ingly, supposing the Hebrew Gospel to have been
used to a limited extent, and to have served a tempo-
rary purpose, the Greek Gospel of Matthew alone
obtained currency in the Western churches, it being
settled by their own testimony that the earliest Fathers
did not use, or even possess, the Gospel of Matthew in
any other than the Greek form, in which we now pos-
sess it. His Gospel, therefore, as we have it, is not a
record of the very words which he heard from the lips
of Christ ; but is a record of the words of Christ in
Greek, conveyed to him by the Spirit as he wrote
them. It is preposterous, considering the infinite
sacredness and importance of the subject, to suppose
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 57
with Olshausen, " That Matthew himself, when he had
composed the Hebrew Gospel, executed likewise a free
translation, or new composition of it in the Greek lan-
guage. It makes no essential difference," he adds,
" if we suppose that a friend of Matthew wrote tht
Greek work under his direction and authority ; but
Matthew's authority must necessarily be supposed to
have been the means of the diffusion of the Gospel,
as otherwise it is inexplicable that there does not ap-
pear the faintest trace of any opposition to it." On
this, I need only remark: 1. That on this suppo-
sition both the verbal discrepancies and coincidences
between Matthew and the other Evangelists would be
unaccountable and incredible in the very last degree.
2. That the Hebrew Gospel, as the author last quoted
expressly says, " differed from our Gresk Gospel of
Matthew, for it contained many things wanting in our
Gospel." How then could the Greek be palmed off
upon Matthew's, or upon any one's, authority as an
honest, not to say an authoritative and infallible transla-
tion of the Hebrew ? Suppose Matthew to have writ-
ten the Hebrew Gospel, in his official character, and
put it in circulation as of Divine authority. "Would
he have made for permanent and universal circulation
a partial translation to supersede the original of his
own Gospel, omitting many things, equally parts of his
Gospel with the rest ? 3. It is a desperate supposition,
that Matthew, from lack of sufficient knowledge of the
Greek tongue, for that is the implied and only con-
ceivable reason, procured a friend to translate and
garble his Gospel, under his own direction and au-
thority. For how could he direct or authorize the use
58 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
of words which he did not understand ? If such was
his predicament, it is inevitable that the Greek words
were not furnished by a friendly scholar in the capa-
city of translator ; but were given to him by Inspira-
tion of God, the Holy Ghost, as he wrote them.
On the supposition that Christ Himself appointed
the times, the writers, the things to be written, and all
the particulars and circumstances relating to the writ-
ing and publication of the different Gospels, the whole
matter is intelligible and plain ; and this supposition
is abundantly more than authorized, by the fact that
the Gospels as written are of Divine authority and in-
fallibility, and by the acknowledged character and office
of Christ, as the Kevealer of God, the Divine Prophet,
Teacher, Kedeemer, and Saviour of men. But every
attempt of learned critics and commentators to account
for the phenomena, by assigning mere private, pruden-
tial, personal reasons, why the respective Evangelists
wrote as they did in respect to matter and manner,
what kind of assistance Mark had from Peter, and
Luke from Paul, and under what influence and sanc-
tion the Gospels of these two Evangelists obtained
public confidence and established currency, does but
lower the subject down to the level of mere human
wisdom. If the words which Mark wrote were not
directly inspired into his mind as he wrote them ; if
he in his private capacity, not having himself witnessed
the things which he relates, sat down to write without
a full and perfect knowledge of what he should say,
of what avail can it be for the critics to inform us that,
in the opinion of the Fathers, or some of them, he was
at some period an associate of Peter, and therefore
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 59
probably wrote his Gospel under the direction of that
Apostle ; and therefore, that his Gospel may reasona-
bly be considered as of Apostolic authority ? May it
not be Divine, the very word of God, without having
been written under the direction of an Apostle ? If
Peter dictated to Mark what he should write, as Jere-
miah did to Baruch, and as Paul did to Tertius, why
was not that fact stated, and the writing called the
Gospel of Peter ? If Mark wrote unofficially as a pri-
vate man, and the words which he wrote were inspired
into the mind of Peter, why did not Peter write them ?
He wrote Epistles, why should he not write a Gospel ?
He was a Disciple of Christ, and heard His words, and
he was an Apostle ; Mark was neither.
The same course of remark and interrogation is
obvious in respect to Luke ; who, not being an apostle,
and not having been a disciple, the critics, for similar
reasons, imagine to have written his Gospel under the
direction of Paul. I humbly conceive that all such
theories and conceits in respect to the origin of the
Gospels, proceed upon the assumption that mere
human agency, human wisdom and discretion, human
policy and skill, were concerned in the production of
those Divine records of the very words of the Divine
official Revealer and Messenger of the Father, Prophet
and Teacher of the world. The very same men who
can repose on the hypothesis that Mark owed what he
wrote to the assistance of Peter as an Apostle, can, on
another hypothesis, entertain doubts of the genuine-
ness of the second Epistle of Peter himself, which he
begins by declaring himself " a servant and an Apostle
of Jesus Christ." This passes for learning. The Gos-
60 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
pel of Mark written under the direction of Peter, the
Gospel of Luke written under the direction of Paul —
and yet both of them the word of God — the very
words of Christ. This passes for learning with men
who shrink from the idea of verbal inspiration.
The first three Gospels consist mainly of the verbal
discourses of Christ, narratives of His miraculous cures,
His journeys, and the like. The Gospel of John has,
in its details, little in common with the other three.
It omits for the most part what they had particularly
described, and consists chiefly of original doctrinal
statements and discussions. Now if what Matthew
wrote was just what he remembered of the acts and
discourses of the Saviour, and if his remembering it
was the reason why he wrote his Gospel, how is it to
be accounted for that he remembered and wrote so
little of all that is recorded by John? And how
should it happen that John, when near an hundred
years of age, should so well remember the most ab-
struse discussions and lofty discourses concerning
spiritual and heavenly subjects, and yet recall, or have
brought to his remembrance, so little of what was said
in connection with the impressive scenes and events of
the Saviour's life and pilgrimage? Surely we must
needs conclude that, whatever they remembered, neither
of them had any thing to do in deciding the question,
what they should -write. And still more preposterous
is it to imagine that Mark or Luke could have had any
thing to do with that question. The Infinite "Wisdom
of Him whose words were to be recorded, in the exe-
cution of His prophetic office, prescribed, in all respects,
as He was instructed by the Father, as to the time
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 61
when, the persons by whom, and the words in which
his own oral discourses, and all that concerned His
life, His acts, His teachings, His death and resurrec-
tion, and all the future of His Kingdom should be
recorded. Any thing short of this is too palpably de-
rogatory to Him, and to the subject in every relation,
to be for a moment admitted. The announcements to
be made, and the events which were to occur, were in
the power of the Father to be manifested by the Son
in His official work in their due order of succession.
There was a fixed and critical moment for every act
and event of His life. Hence, though to Him as the
Messenger of the Father, all power in heaven and
earth was given to be exercised in the fulfillment of
His delegated work, yet when questioned as to things
not yet to be disclosed, He says : "To sit on my right
hand, and my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be
given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father."
. . . . " But of that day and hour knoweth no man,
no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." . . .
" My time is not yet come. . . . My Father worketh
hitherto and I work. . . . The Son can do nothing of
Himself, but what he seeth the Father do : for what
things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son like-
wise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth
Him all things that Himself doeth — that all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father
which hath sent Him. ... I can of mine own self do
nothing : as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just:
because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me. . . The works which
62 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
the Father hath given me to finish, the same works
that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent
me. ... I speak to the world those things which I
have heard of Him. ... I do nothing of myself; but
as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
And He that sent me is with me : the Father hath not
left me alone. ... I proceeded forth and came from
God ; neither came I of myself, but He sent me. . . .
I must work the works of Him that sjsnt me, while it
is day — as long as I am in the world, I am the Light
of the world. . . . Say ye of Him whom the Father
hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blas-
phemest because I said, I am the Son of God ? The
hour is come when the Son of man should be glorified.
. . . . Father, save me from this hour: but for this
cause came I unto this hour. ... I have not spoken
of myself ; but the Father which sent me, He gave me
a commandment what I should say, and what I should
speak. . . . When Jesus knew that His hour was come
that He should depart out of this world unto the
Father, etc. . . . He that receiveth whomsoever I send,
receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him
that sent me. . . . No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. . . . The words that I speak unto you, I
speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in
me, He doeth the works. . . . The word which ye
hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. . . .
As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
... If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask, etc All things that I have heard
of my Father, I have made known unto you. ... I
have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 63
gavest me out of the world. ... I have given unto
them the words which Thou gavest me. ... I have
given them Thy word. ... As Thou hast sent me
into the world, even so have I sent them, the Apostles,
into the world."
Such are some of the expressions by which, on suc-
cessive occasions, He taught the nature and extent of
His prophetic office as the Messenger of the Father ; in
connection with which, and with His appointment of
the apostles to be His messengers, He pointedly in-
structed them, both by example in washing their feet,
and by precept, that " The servant is not greater than
his lord ; neither he that is sent greater than he that
sent him." By the mission of the Spirit, He fully pro-
vided for the utterance in writing of the Grospels and
Epistles. But when, in the Apocalypse, new and more
ample disclosures were to be made concerning His per-
son, His works, and the future of His Kingdom, they
were expressly given to Him by the Father. (Revela-
tion 1 : 1.)
On this view of the office of Christ as Prophet, and
His manner of executing it, so far as the Scriptures and
the writing of them are concerned, through the official
agency of the Holy Spirit sent by Him, the subject is,
I humbly conceive, cleared, by what the Scriptures
themselves teach, from the difficulties and paradoxes
so commonly supposed to embarrass it. The ground
on which the Holy Scriptures, are by Christ Himself,
and by the Spirit in His name speaking in the subordi-
nate messengers, prophets, and apostles, called the
Word of God, is clearly manifest. What the Sacred
Penmen wrote, was, word for word, what the Spirit
64 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
spoke, inspired into their minds, realized to their intel-
ligent consciousness, as they wrote it. He spake by
them as appointed, delegated, to receive and to utter
in writing what He conveyed to them by inspiration ;
by them, by the Apostles, by the Evangelists, by all
the prophets since the world began. The system, from
the beginning, is one comprehensive, perfect, effectual
system, for the infallible communication of the will of
God to men. The original texts of Scripture were to
the Levitical and Apostolic Churches, in matter and
manner, just what they would have been had the
Divine Messenger of the covenant dictated every word
of them to the writers by His own vocal utterance, in-
stead of conveying them, when He was personally
absent, by the Spirit sent officially and expressly for
that purpose.
Two only of the difficulties supposed to be incident
to this view of inspiration, appear to me to require a
word of explanation. If the very words which the sacred
penmen wrote were dictated or conveyed by inspira-
tion into their minds ; if they had no liberty or discre-
tion in the choice of subjects, or of words, how, it is
asked, can it be possible that their own individual
peculiarities and personal circumstances, acts, purposes,
sympathies, hopes, fears, should be interposed as part
and parcel of the sacred writings ? To which I an-
swer, that the entire scheme of mediation, intercourse,
and fellowship between God and man involves and re-
quires this. It was therefore necessary that the Divine
Messenger Himself should be capacitated in human
nature to sympathize in all that concerned His people
individually and personally, to be touched with the feel-
WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION. 65
ing of their infirmities, to succor and encourage in them
the sanctified exercise of all the emotions and affections
of their nature. Hence He employs men of like pas-
sions, sympathies, trials, with other men, to preach
His word. There is a basis in their common nature
for sympathy, attention, confidence, faith, on the part
of the hearer, with the voice, the manner, the earnest-
ness, the personal thoughts and feelings of the speaker.
In like manner He employed the sacred penmen to
write in His words whatever of their personal experi-
ence, feelings, affections, circumstances, history, He
thought necessary for instruction, example, warning, or
encouragement to others ; using their thoughts and
emotions as He used their pens, consistently with the
free exercise of their faculties, and adapting His in-
structions to the sympathies of the readers, and avail-
ing Himself of the basis and medium of sympathy be
tween the writers and readers. It is obvious that what-
ever, concerning the internal or external experience
of the writers, was to be expressed in Scripture, must
be expressed in perfect conformity to their conscious-
ness, and therefore in words which they would naturally
have used. And if the inspiration of those words was
just as posssible to the Omniscient Spirit as the inspira-
tion of words to express, on other subjects, either what
they did or what they did not know before, then there is
no difficulty peculiar to the class of words in question ;
and they are the words of God in the same sense, and for
the same reason, as all the other words of Scripture.
^But, says the objector, this makes the writers mere
machines ; this is the mechanical theory of inspiration.
This hackneyed phrase has had controlling influence
66 WORDS OF GOD CONVEYED BY INSPIRATION.
with the entire school of writers, who from the days
of Whitby have copied each other in substituting for
the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures an influence ex-
erted more or less according to exigency, on the men-
tal faculties of the writers. They do not condescend to
explain how men in the intelligent and voluntary ex-
ercise of all their faculties, are any more made ma-
chines by writing words conveyed to them by inspira-
tion than they would be by writing words audibly dic-
tated to them, or copying words from a manuscript or
from a printed book. Had they explained the phrase
it would not have answered the purpose of creating
and sustaining a prejudice against verbal inspiration.
The real purport of the phrase is, that if the very
words were inspired into the minds of the sacred writ-
ers, then they had no discretion either as to the choice
of thoughts or words ; and what they wrote of fact or
narrative that was known to them before, is the word
of God in the same sense and for the same reason as
other parts of Scripture. Yet the same school of
writers admit that the words which expressed predic-
tions, and whatever they did not know before, must
have been dictated, or otherwise prescribed and con-
veyed to the writers. Were they then machines in
writing all the most essential parts of Scripture?
And with respect to the historical narratives, is it not
palpable that a resistless supernatural influence on
their faculties, an infallible guidance, direction, super-
intendency, restraint from error, must have suspended
the free exercise of their faculties, and really made
them mere machines ?
CONCEENING THE TABEENACLE. 67
VI. REFEEENCE TO THE YEEBAL INSTEUCTIONS CON-
CEENING THE TABEENACLE AND THE LiEVITICAL
FAITH AND WOESHIP.
This view of the prophetic office, the nature of in-
spiration, and the merely ministerial relation and
agency of the prophets and apostles, might be con-
firmed by reference to every part of Scripture. It
was in the exercise of His prophetic office, that the
Messenger Jehovah gave to Moses a minute verbal
description, in exact conformity to which the taber-
nacle, the ark, the cherubim, the table, the candlestick,
the altar were to be constructed. The description spe-
cifies the materials to be employed, and the dimensions
and form of the tent or building, and of its several
articles of furniture. Moreover a pattern of these sev-
eral objects was shown to him in the Mount. The
structure itself was to be the place of His official resid-
ence. It signified the body in which He was to ap-
pear incarnate. " Let them make me a sanctuary :
that I may dwell among them. According to all that
I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and
the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall
ye make it." After describing the materials, size,
form, and other particulars concerning the ark, the
mercy-seat, and the cherubim, He adds : " And thou
shalt put the mercy -seat above upon the ark ; and in
the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give
thee" — that is, His words in writing — " and there I
will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee
from above the mercy-seat, from between the two
68 CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE.
cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of
all things which I will give thee in commandment unto
the children of Israel." The details concerning the
table, the candlestick, and the furniture connected with
them, being given, it is said : " And look that thou
make them after their pattern, which was showed thee
in the Mount." Again after a more minute detail con-
cerning the construction of the tabernacle, it is added :
" And thou shall rear up the tabernacle according to
the fashion thereof which was showed thee in the
Mount." A like injunction is given in respect to the
altar. (Exod. 25—27.)
The reader will observe that not a word of this de-
scription was to be omitted or deviated from in the
slightest degree. Every word was to be literally com-
plied with. The pattern which was shown to Moses,
and which no doubt gave him an impression more
vivid and perfect than the verbal description could pro-
duce, could not be seen by the artificers who were to
fabricate the objects described. To qualify them,
therefore, to execute the prescribed work in perfect
conformity to the verbal description, special gifts of
the Holy Spirit were imparted to them. " The Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name
Bezaleel . . . and I have filled him with the Spirit of
God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in know-
ledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise
cunning works, to work in gold, etc., etc and
I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab .... and
in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put
wisdom; that they may make all that I have com-
manded thee : the tabernacle of the congregation, and
CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE. 69
the ark of the testimony," etc., etc. (Exod. 31.) These
designations and endowments are repeated in the
thirty -fifth chapter ; and in the thirty-sixth it is said :
" Then wrought Bezaleel, and Aholiab, and every wise-
hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and un-
derstanding to know how to work all manner of work
for the service of the sanctuary, according to all tfiat the
Lord had commanded" Then follows in the thirty-
seventh and thirty-eighth chapters a detailed statement
of the things which they actually made, corresponding
to the original prescription. Thus the tabernacle and
all its furniture were produced through the agency of
these artificers in exact conformity to the pattern shown
to Moses in the Mount, and to the verbal description
given to him there.
Now the facts recorded in this portion of sacred his-
tory, furnish, I apprehend, a legitimate and irrefrag-
able argument to the effect: 1. That the words ad-
dressed to Moses were spoken by Jehovah in the exer-
cise of His prophetic office. 2. That every word so
spoken by Him is recorded verbatim as He uttered
them. 3. That His words so spoken and recorded are
the infallible word of God to be literally fulfilled.
Like the pattern shown to Moses they have a back-
ground in the counsels of the Father, which leaves
nothing in matter or manner to the competency or dis-
cretion of men. In this case it may be said that the
typical purposes of the tabernable, the ark, the altar,
etc., required such literal exactness. But in what case
of His teaching, directly or indirectly, may not the
same be alleged and with equal force ? The nature
and object of His prophetic ofiice and His teachings
70 CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE.
forbid the assumption of any difference in these re-
spects. We ' are here emphatically taught that His
words, as written by His servants, are the infallible
words of God, and must be complied with and vindi-
cated to the letter. If vocal articulations, or their
counterparts in writing, are not in every case sufficient
to render an exact compliance feasible, He will inter-
pose visible patterns, figures, emblems, types, symbols.
The construction of His spiritual temple was the end,
towards which the material tabernacle was but an
auxiliary ; and the argument from the facts above
stated, is, that as the tabernacle was constructed in
exact conformity to the verbal directions — the very
words of Jehovah, to the exclusion of all dependence
on human wisdom or discretion — so all the words of
Scripture are His words, in exact accordance with
which the spiritual house is built, the spiritual house
of which God is the builder, the foundation being His
own words written by appostles and prophets, the in-
itiative, the chief corner, Jesus Christ.
The same minute particularity of verbal description
is given, chapter thirty-eight, and afterwards, of the
ephod, the breast-plate, the Urim and Thummim, the
garments of the priests, the ceremonies of their conse-
cration, the burnt offering, and all the sacrifices, offer-
ings, rites, and observances prescribed in the ritual of
worship. No deviation from the verbal directions
could be permitted with impunity. When further in-
structions were necessary, either in the execution of
the typical, ceremonial, or civil laws, they were verbal-
ly announced by Jehovah from between the cherubim.
To secure a like literal compliance with the word of
CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE. 71
God, in respect to the materials, construction, and fur-
niture of the temple, David .received by the Spirit a
like minute verbal description, (according to which he
would seem to have constructed patterns,) which he de-
livered to Solomon, and which are summarily men-
tioned, 1 Chron. 28.
There is a deeper significance in all this than to a
casual reader may appear on the surface. Moses was
detained in the Mount, in the midst of the cloud, forty
days and nights, to receive from the lips of Jehovah
the instructions recorded in Exod. 25-31. Very pro-
bably he wrote them there as he received them ; as
David seems immediately to have written the instruc-
tions concerning the construction of the temple, which
he received from the Spirit. In both cases the things
to be constructed, and the sacrifices, rites, and ceremo-
nies to be performed, were to constitute an outward,
visible, and exact expression of the mind and will of
God, concerning the person, offices, incarnation, sacri-
fice, and mediation of Christ, and the way of salvation
through Him ; an emblematic, pictorial, visible, repre-
sentation of the leading truths of the Gospel. The
verbal description therefore behooved to be given in
His own words ; and every precaution was accordingly
taken that they should be exactly recorded and literally
complied with. They were given by Him in the ex-
ercise of His office as prophet, and the whole proced-
ure most directly concerned the glory of Jehovah as
Lawgiver and Kedeemer, as Prophet, Priest, and King.
But the rest of the Scriptures were likewise given by
Him in the exercise of His prophetic office. They are
the outward, visible, permanent expression in words of
72 CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE.
the mind and will of God, concerning the same things
in one relation or another. When Moses had com-
pleted the works, " according to all that the Lord com-
manded him," the whole was divinely approved and
sanctioned. " Then a cloud covered the tent of the
congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the taber-
nacle . . . the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle
by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all
the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys."
(Exod. 40.)
Jehovah, having descended from Sinai and taken up
his residence in the typical sanctuary, spake to Moses
the words which constitute nearly the entire book of
Leviticus. It contains in minute verbal detail, the
laws, rites, and observances of the religious service en-
joined upon the children of Israel, which were to be
literally obeyed. If strictly obeyed, it promises abund-
ant blessings. On the contrary, the least infraction as
well as general neglect and disobedience, is threatened
with specific or public and overwhelming judgments.
It is to the previous instructions concerning the taber-
nacle and its furniture, what the Epistles of the New
Testament are to the Gospels. Its spiritual instruc-
tion by visible acts and types, rendered exactness of
verbal prescription absolutely indispensable. Accord-
ingly, as is observed by Mr. Bonar, in his Commentary,
" There is no book in the whole compass of that vol-
ume which the Holy Ghost has given us, that contains
more of the very words of God than Leviticus. It is
God that is the direct speaker in almost every page ;
His gracious words are recorded in the form wherein
they were uttered. . . . The Gospel of the grace of
CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE. 73
God, with all that follows in its train, may be found in
Leviticus. . . . The rites here detailed were typical ;
and every type was designed and intended by God to
bear resemblance to some spiritual truth. The like-
ness between type and antitype is never accidental."
Now a typical object or action can afford no definite
and accurate instruction, unless the thing typified is
verbally understood. The accuracy of the verbal re-
presentation is the test of the instruction conveyed by
the type. A human face may be so distinctly described
in words, that a stranger, on seeing an exact likeness
on canvas, will with certainty recognize it. But if
the verbal description was not perfectly accurate, he
who saw the picture would be left in doubt and un-
certainty. So in all these words of Jehovah in Exodus
and Leviticus. They are His infallible words, recorded
as He spoke them, as the criterion of the meaning of
types, literally fulfilled in the antitypes, and vindicated
in the history of those to whom they were addressed,
As the words infallibly described what was to be ex-
hibited and done in the Levitical worship, it was
necessary that the typical objects and acts should be
exactly conformable to the verbal description ; other-
wise they would be understood to signify and teach
something else, and not what they were intended to
signify. The leading doctrines of religion, and the
meaning of their typical sacrifices, had, prior to Moses,
been taught to the Patriarchs and others, directly by
Jehovah Himself, and the New Testament references
to their faith, show that they understood them. "When
the system was enlarged and perfected under Moses,
many new types and typical actions were introduced.
4
74 CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE.
The system was so enlarged and complicated as to re-
quire a minute verbal description of all the details.
The signification of the added types and the whole
tableaux of visible manifestations and acts was to be
taught to the Priests and Levites, and through them to
the people. And in order that the pictorial instruction
should be infallibly correct — that the types when ex-
hibited to the worshippers, should signify exactly what
was intended by them — it was necessary that the exhi-
bition should in every particular exactly correspond to
the verbal directions ; even as it was necessary that the
things pertaining to the tabernacle should be made in
exact conformity to the pattern shown- to Moses in the
mount, and to the verbal directions there given. Hence
the incessant and scrupulous care enjoined upon the
Priests, and practised by them, in administering this
system.
Now from these premises, I think an unanswerable
argument is to be derived, in proof of the verbal in-
spiration of all the words of Scripture. In all the di-
rections above referred to, the words are confessedly
the very words of Jehovah. The infallibility of the
words, and an exact conformity to them in the acts,
was essential to the accuracy of the instruction, the
faith of the worshippers, and the acceptableness of
their worship. Jehovah Himself, who prescribed the
system, was personally present, beholding what took
place. If, then, this system of typical instruction, this
temporary ritual, these ceremonial observances, this
scheme of discipline and faith, having for its end the
erection of the spiritual house for w an habitation of
God through the Spirit, required, 1st, to be prescribed
CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE. 75
in the very words of its founder ; and 2d, to be exe-
cuted in exact conformity to the verbal prescription ;
is it not a legitimate and irresistible inference, that all
those teachings, ordinances, prescriptions, whether in
the Old or the New Testament, which were not aided
and enforced by external and typical objects and acts,
required, so much the more for that reason, to be given
in His own infallible words as the rule of faith and
life? Was the Levitical church built on the verba
ipsissima of its founder, and the more advanced Christ-
ian church, built not on His own infallible words, but
on words selected by men assisted according to exi-
gency ? Was Christ the architect, builder, teacher of
the Levitical church, and not as truly and perfectly
such of the Christian? Were the apostles as His Mes-
sengers, superior to Moses ? Hear what the Scripture
saith : " Consider the apostle — (Messenger) — and High-
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus ; who was faith-
ful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faith-
ful in all His house. For He was counted worthy of
more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath
builded the house, hath more honor than the house.
For every house is builded by some one ; but He that
built all things is God. And Moses verily was faith-
ful in all His house, as a servant, for a testimony of
those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ
as a Son over His own house ; whose house are we if we
hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end." (Heb. 3.) This passage was intend-
ed to demonstrate the superiority of Christ to Moses,
and relates to the founding of the Levitical church —
the house, the spiritual building, of which Moses was
76 CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE.
a constituent. It shows: 1. That Jehovah, who con-
ducted the children of Israel, and dictated His laws to
them, was personally and officially the same as Christ
Jesus, the Messenger of the Father. 2. That He built
the church or house, and that it was His own. 3. That
Moses was but a servant to Him ; and hence, as He
was the builder, teacher, guide, of the house under the
Levitical system, He is the same in relation to the same
house under the Christian system ; and as Moses was
but a servant, so are the apostles but servants in rela-
tion to that building. The general inference from the
whole is, that Moses had not a particle of discretion in
regard to the words which he wrote, nor in regard to a
literal compliance with them ; and for the same reason,
the sacred writers who succeeded him could not exer-
cise a particle of discretion. It would be every whit
as consistent, and as scriptural, to ascribe to the pro-
phets and apostles, the selection of those persons who
should constitute the house and be fitly framed together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit, (Eph. 2,)
as to ascribe to them the selection of a single word of
those Scriptures in conformity to which the house un-
der all dispensations is constructed.
The argument from the foregoing premises, might
be indefinitely illustrated and enlarged upon, so as to
confirm by many particulars the one conclusion ; and
make it manifest, that as the tabernacle which was
pitched in the wilderness by the instrumentality of
Moses, had its perfect prototype in the pattern shown
to him in the mount ; so the Scriptures as the word of
God, are the utterances of His mind and will in His
own infallible words. They constitute in an external ,
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 77
visible, and permanent form, His expression of His
mind and will ; the embodiment and tangible product
of the prophetic office ; the portraiture and mirror of
His image ; the medium of His converse and fellow-
ship in the Spirit with His people ; the instrument of
the Spirit in illuminating, renewing, and sanctifying
His people, and erecting them into His spiritual tem-
ple ; the objective basis of their faith, the warrant of
their prayers, the rule of their lives ; His verbal testi-
mony concerning Himself, and His past and future
works.
YH. THE LOGOS AND THE SPIRIT EEVEALED IN
THE OLD TESTAMENT — THE FATHER CHIEFLY EST
THE NEW.
The foregoing doctrine of the prophetic office of
Christ and of His manner of executing it, till all that
the Father had determined to have recorded for the
permanent instruction of the Church and the world,
was written, affords a sure basis for the doctrine of
plenary verbal inspiration. He who from the begin-
ning was officially the Kevealer of the Father, received
His words, and through the official agency of the
Spirit, and the fitting instrumentality of men appoint-
ed for that purpose, communicated them to the world
in the books of Holy Scripture ; so that their original
infallibility and Divine authority were neither dimin-
ished, nor in any manner hazarded by the transmission.
All the purposes of the Divine wisdom respecting this
world and the dependent universe, the entire adminis-
78 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
tration of law and government, providence and grace,
over fallen creatures, through subordinate official agen-
cies and instrumentalities, demanded that the words of
God should be conveyed to man, without abatement
of their infallibility or authority ; for they constitute
the rule of administration, and the only rule of hu-
man faith, conduct, accountability, and destiny, and as
such abide forever, and are to be fulfilled to the letter
in all intermediate and all final issues. He who, in
virtue of the eternal covenant, took on Him this office
of Kevealer, Prophet, Messenger — was appointed heir
of all things, and head over all things in their rela-
tions to His Church, and fulfills His mission, exercises
His prerogatives, and rules His kingdom in this world
in accordance with, and, so far as the obligations and
agency of man are concerned, by the instrumentality
of the word of God, recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
In the incipient and prefigurative exercise of His
sacerdotal office, He employed the subordinate instru-
mentality of the Aaronic priesthood, under a prescribed
and rigid ritual. In the exercise of His regal office
during His Theocratic administration, He appointed
David and His lineal descendants, to represent Him.
In the exercise of His prophetic office relatively to the
writing of the Holy Scriptures, He sent the Spiritr—
His immediate, omniscient, infallible messenger — to
impart the words to be written, to the prophets, apos-
tles, and evangelists, whom He appointed to receive
and write them; so that when written, they should
have the same infallibility and authority, as if directly
uttered by His voice, or recorded by His hand. This
was alike demanded, by the nature and purpose of
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 79
His office, His relations, as Messenger of the Father,
and as Lawgiver, Eedeemer and Judge of men, and
by the ignorance, the exigencies, and all the moral
and spiritual relations of men.
His words are the indispensable element of man's
faith in Him. Peoples, nations, individuals, that have
them not, are wholly devoid of faith. His greatest
utterances under the ancient and under the present
dispensation, were identical with the forth-putting of
His almighty power in the production of His visible
works ; and faith in the works as His, neither exists,
nor is possible apart from His words. " It was He
who said BE, and it was." " Let there be light, and
there was light." " Behold I, even I, do bring a flood
of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh." " He
said to Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the sea. . . .
and He caused the sea to go back, . . . and the waters
were divided." " He said," that is, commanded, let
there be, " and there came divers sorts of flies. . . . He
said, and the locusts came." "He sent His word and
healed those who cried to Him, and delivered them
from their destructions." "By the word of Jehovah,
were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by
the breath of His mouth." " He rebuked the wind,
and said unto the sea, Peace, be still ; and the wind
ceased and there was a great calm." . . . " He said,
Lazarus, come forth ; and he that was dead came forth."
Hereafter, " all that are in their graves shall hear His
voice, and shall come forth."
It would seem to have been the opinion of theolo-
gical writers generally, of all denominations, not only
that very little is to be found in the Old Testament
80 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
Scriptures concerning the Christ, either as preexisting
before His incarnation, or as exercising any of His
mediatorial offices ; but that still less is recorded respect-
ing any official agency of the Holy Spirit. Because
with particular reference to His official works, He is
expressly promised for the execution of them after the
ascension, and the arrival of the day of the Pentecost,
it seems to have been assumed that His official works
were then to be commenced. It has, apparently, been
taken for granted that the Scriptures of the Old Testa-
ment were a Eevelation of the Father, and of His rela-
tions and acts towards creatures ; or of the self-exist-
ent Unity, without distinction of persons or offices.
Whereas, rightly viewed, the Old Testament, is for
substance a Eevelation of the Son in His delegated
character, relations, offices, and acts ; and of the Spirit
in His offices, as sent to communicate to the Prophets
the words of the anointed Messenger of the Father, and
to sanctify the souls of men through the instrumentality
of the truths recorded. In reality, that which the New
Testament adds to the teachings of the Old, is, preemi-
nently, its Kevelations concerning the Father. To this
object the Gospel of John, from the third to the seven-
teenth chapters inclusive, and his first two Epistles,
are more especially devoted : and the entire volume
of New Testament Scriptures may be cited in evidence,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is personally and officially
identical with the Jehovah, the Messenger, (Angel,)
Jehovah, the Messiah, of the Old Testament, under
whatever names or titles His works may be ascribed to
Him, in either case. To Him — the Logos from the be-
ginning— the law, the prophets, and the Psalms relate.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 81
Of Him — the Logos incarnate — the Apostles and
Evangelists wrote. In His complex person, perfected
by His incarnation, and visibly manifested to the
world, He revealed, declared, made known the Father,
as personally and officially distinguished from Him-
self, and as having sent Him to proclaim and execute
His will. The Greek word translated Father occurs
in the New Testament more than twelve-score times as
a designation of the Father, in distinction from the Son
and Spirit. The parallel Hebrew word, though some-
times employed in the sense of Creator, as in Isaiah
63 and 64, does not occur as distinctive of the Father, ex-
cept prophetically, 2 Sam. 7 : 14, as quoted, Heb. 1 : 5.
That He is distinctively referred to, however, under
those names which indicate the Divine nature of the
respective persons of the Godhead, is manifest in vari-
ous places : as in Psalm 2 : 7, where the Son makes
the declaration, " Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art
my Son," etc., and Psalms 22 : 1, etc. ; 45 : 2, 7 ; 110 : 4,
and elsewhere. And that the Patriarchs, Moses, and
the Prophets understood sufficiently to evolve and
regulate their faith, what is more fully revealed in the
Gospel, concerning the Father, is as evident as that
they understood any thing distinctively of the Re-
deemer, the Sanctifier, and the method of salvation.
The faith through which they were justified is express-
ly commended in the Gospel as the model of that of
Christian believers. Their faith looked forward
through covenants, promises, predictions, ordinances,
types, as that of Christian believers looks back to the
central manifestation of the system in the Incarnation
and sacrifice of Christ. But in all that concerned
82 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
their instruction, their ritual and mode of worship, and
their forms of obedience, they had to do directly with
the Son as the official administrator of the system, visi-
ble in His personal manifestations, works, and words ;
and with the Spirit sent invisibly to inspire His words
into the minds of Prophets appointed to utter them
vocally or in writing, and through those words as His
instrument to enlighten, renew, and sanctify believers.
Their faith in the things announced and foreshown,
but then future — unequalled, unparalleled by the re-
trospective faith of modern times — demonstrates that
they had an intelligent apprehension of the system.
Well did David know, what he plainly declares, that
the Spirit spake by him. "Well did the prophets know
that He spake by them — by every true prophet since
the world began. "Well did every believer know the
Spirit as his inward illuminator, teacher, and sanctifier.
The Hebrew word translated Spirit occurs in the
ancient Scriptures some four-score times, as a personal
designation of the Holy Spirit, as sent, as speaking by
the mouth of the prophets, as being poured out, given
to, dwelling in believers, etc., while under other desig-
nations, and in the effects properly to be ascribed to
Him, He is continually referred to. And that His of-
ficial presence and agency in the true worshippers was
realized at every period, is implied in their recorded
experience, in the expressions of individuals from the
days of Abraham to the advent, and in those of Simeon
and Anna at that period. In a word : The Old Testa-
ment Scriptures, together with the New, are as truly and
comprehensively the work of the Spirit, as the material
universe was the work of the Logos in the beginning.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 83
They are the visible and abiding monument of His of-
ficial agency in the execution of the mediatorial sys-
tem, and in accordance with the eternal covenant.
They stand related to all ranks of intelligent crea-
tures ; disclosing to the successive generations of men,
and to principalities and powers in heavenly places,
the manifold wisdom of God, in His infallible words,
as " revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by
the Spirit." They are the medium of His indwelling
presence and influence in the hearts of believers, and
the indispensable instrument of His sanctifying energy.
They are the public testimony and declaration to the
world, and the dependent universe, of His Deity and
Personality, of His coequality with the Father and the
Son, of His official works, and of the vastness, the per-
manence, and the ever-increasing results of His om-
niscient and ceaseless agency.
The Gospel, and the first two Epistles of John, writ-
ten last of all the Scriptures, are devoted chiefly to the
Eevelation of the Father: especially the Gospel,
Chap. 3-17. The first chapter of the Gospel, how-
ever, relates to the Son in His delegated character,
the Logos as revealed, and as the Kevealer and actor
throughout the prior dispensations, and at His incarna-
tion. In this official character He was in the begin-
ning. All things were made by Him. In Him was
life, he gave life to all creatures. He was the light,
the source and giver of intellectual and spiritual light
to men. He was, that is, from the beginning, in the
world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not. The light shone, but the darkness
admitted it not. He came to His ancient chosen peo-
84 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
pie, but they, with, some exceptions, received Him not.
At length, He became incarnate, and manifested His
personality, His peculiar office work, and His glory as
proceeding from the Father.
In this retrospective and historical view, He is called
the Logos, which is a primary designation of Him in
His official relations as creator and upholder of all
things, and as Kevealer of the Father. The appropri-
ation of this abstract term as a personal designation of
the Kevealer of God, is by some recent critics traced
to the consideration that consciousness in an intelligent
being — consciousness of existence, of affections, of
thoughts, is realized in words — silently articulated or
conceived ; which when vocally expressed or written,
reveal the thoughts which were primarily conceived in
them. Hence the concrete Hebrew term Ddbar, and
the Chaldee term Memra, as used to represent the vocal
articulation of the thoughts of which the Being was
silently conscious. Such, so far as we know, is, un-
doubtedly, the law of mind, of intellectual conscious-
ness and action. And since the thoughts of the
Divine mind, so far as they are made known to us,
may be truly conceived by us, and since the words in
which they are made known, are the words in which
we conceive and become. conscious of them, it would
seem to be as proper to suppose this to be a law' of the
Divine mind as to suppose that the audible vocal ar-
ticulations of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
respectively, which are recorded in the Scriptures, truly
convey to us the otherwise inscrutable thoughts of the
Divine mind.
On this view, when we call the Scriptures the word
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 85
of God, we mean that the original words of Scripture
are the written representation of the silent or the vocal
articulations in which the thoughts which they express
were consciously conceived and existed in the Divine
mind. To convey those thoughts in those words ap-
pertained to the Logos in His prophetic office. If we
have the thoughts, we have through His official
agency the very words in which the thoughts origin-
ally inhered, and were committed to Him to be pub-
lished to the world. In part He published them by
His own vocal utterances ; and in part by the agency
of the Spirit on His behalf inspiring them into the
minds of the sacred writers.
To say then with strictness and propriety, that the
words of the original texts of Scripture are the words
of God, is to say that they are in visible writing, the
articulations in which as audibly uttered or silently
conceived, the thoughts conveyed were originally
realized in the Divine mind. In other words, that
thoughts in the Divine mind are verbal in a manner
corresponding to that of thoughts in the human mind ;
so that when vocally articulated or written, they remain
as truly His as the thoughts which they express. All
that we know of the thoughts as His, is expressed in
the words as His, as the original, formal, and indispen-
sable mode and vehicle of the thoughts ; as in the case
of man, he expresses his thoughts in words, and the
words are as truly and in the same sense his as the
thoughts are.
Hence when the Logos tells us that He came down
from heaven, not to do His own will, not to speak His
own words or as of Himself ; but to do the will of the
86 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
Father who sent Him, to speak, as His Messenger, the
words prescribed by Him, He must be understood to
mean the very words in which the thoughts were pre-
scribed and realized to His consciousness. And when
the Spirit in His name, and on His behalf, was sent,
under the same specific restrictions, to convey the pre-
scribed thoughts to the sacred writers, the same ad-
herence to the words in which they were prescribed,
is rendered certain by the terms of His commission.
So far then as concerns the original texts, there is
the same evidence that we have the very words of God,
that there is that we have His thoughts. They are the
words of God officially prescribed and given by Him
to the Son as His Messenger. And as the Son prima-
rily executed His prophetic office by vocally and audi-
bly uttering the words given to Him, and thus
manifested Himself to the world by His verbal utter-
ances, He was designated by the abstract term which
naturally and forcibly indicated His peculiar office and
mission.
Consistently with this, and with the just authority of
translations, we denominate our version of the original
texts the word of God, on the ground of its being a
true expression in English words of the thoughts ex-
pressed in the original text. That text furnished a
perfect standard of the thoughts : so that a translator
who perfectly conceived the thoughts in the words of
that text, and perfectly conceived the same thoughts in
the words of another language, might express them as
perfectly as the original expressed them. To whatever
extent he accomplished that, his version would be of
like authority with the original, and as such would be,
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 87
with propriety, called the word of God, as expressing
His mind and will with the same certainty as the
original ; and to whatever extent he failed of this, his
version would lack authority.
On this view of the official character and relations
of the respective persons of the Godhead, making their
acts official acts, and regarding the Logos from the
beginning as executing the external works of creation,
providence, and grace, and His offices of Prophet,
Priest, and King, the Old Testament becomes intelli-
gibly harmonious with the New, and the Scriptures
exhibit throughout a perfect unity of plan, and entire
coherence and consistency in their details. They ex-
hibit the mind and will of the Godhead, officially repre-
sented by the Father, and manifested by the personal
agencies of the Son and the Spirit as His Messengers.
Thus all that appertained to the work of the Logos is
in harmony with His officially subordinate relations,
whether before or after His incarnation. Being the
recognized actor and revealer from the beginning, the
mediator between the invisible Godhead — officially
represented by the Father — and the human race, He
prescribed their obedience and their worship ; and
after the apostasy of man, their worship by sacrifices,
and their ritual of service. In the exercise of His sa-
cerdotal office, He presided over that worship, and was
as mediator, its immediate object. To Him, in this
view, the altars of sacrifice were erected by the patri-
archs ; who at those consecrated places called on His
name, and received verbal communications from Hun.
So during the period of the Tabernacle and that of the
first Temple. The prayers of the worshippers uniformly,
88 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
like those of Abraham just prior to the destruction of
Sodom, were addressed to Him as being the mediator
personally present, by whom and through whom their
worship was accepted. This usage was continued
under the New Testament until the Levitical system
was superseded, and the Father revealed as officially
the ultimate object of spirital worship. Hitherto the
worshippers had looked through their typical sacrifices
to the Divine Mediating Logos, who interceded for them
with the invisible God. But in anticipation of His
personally visible withdrawment from them, and of a
more full disclosure of the system, He more particu-
larly taught them concerning the Father. " Verily,
verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto
have ye asJced nothing in my name : ask and ye shall re-
ceive, that your joy may be full. These things have
I spoken unto you in proverbs : but the time cometh
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but
I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day
ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you,
that I will pray the Father for you : for the Father
Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and
have believed that I came out from God. I came forth
from the Father and came into the world," etc. (John
16 : 23-28.) These passages and others relating to
the same subject, seem clearly to teach, that previously
the prayers of the true worshippers, offered through
the mediative significance of typical rites, had been
addressed to God only as manifested in the personal
Logos ; who in His Divine nature and His official acts,
was Jehovah the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 89
Jacob. They regarded Him as Jehovah their right-
eousness— God, their Saviour. Beyond Him, proba-
bly, no others than spiritual worshippers had any
reference. For He Himself says: "O righteous Fa-
ther, the world hath not known Thee : but I have
known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast
sent me. And I have declared unto them Thy name,
and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17.) Subsequently, throughout the Epistles,
the Father is often distinctively mentioned ; and
prayers, thanksgivings, and doxologies are addressed
to Him.
The order in which the official relations of the
persons of the Godhead were manifested and recorded
in the Scriptures, is natural and congruous to man's
apprehension. The actor and revealer in visible
works and audible words, behooved first to make
Himself known by His acts and the manifestation of
His offices. By exhibiting the works of creation and
Providence, by prescribing social and religious institu-
tions, by verbal revelations and instructions, by
piacular sacrifices, and by acting as civil Head and
Euler of His people ; and at length by becoming in-
carnate, and fulfilling the predictions and typical rep-
resentations of the past, He incidentally declared and
prepared the way for that distinctive and ample decla-
ration of the Father, which is recorded in the Gospel.
In His revelations and instructions from the beginning,
the official personal agency of the Spirit was exerted,
invisibly, in communicating His words to the prophets
and sacred writers ; through which delegated agency,
90 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
by their instrumentality, He uttered the sacred oracles
in writing. That the relations of the respective per-
sons were, in a proper sense, official, is evident from
the representation that the Son was subordinate to the
Father, and the Spirit to the Father and the Son ;
whereas, apart from those relations, they were coequal
and one in essence. Nor is this view a novelty.
Augustine — as quoted by Calvin — treating of this
subject, says : " These distinctive appellations denote
their reciprocal relations to each other. . . . The Fa-
ther, considered in Himself, is called God ; but with
relation to the Son, He is called the Father. . . . Christ
considered in Himself, is called God ; but with rela-
tion to the Father, He is called the Son."
I perceive no foundation for the distinction which
some make, between the Logos, in respect to His sub-
ordination, relations, or offices, and the Christ, the God-
man, the Theanthropos. The Logos was in the begin-
ning— all things were made by Him. The Logos became
incarnate and dwelt with men — the God-man — the
Christ. As predicted yet to come, " clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood, His name is called the Logos
of God." (Rev. 19.) In Colossians 1, He is distin-
guished from the Father as " His dear Son : in whom
we have redemption through His blood ;" and " by
Him," under that designation, " were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers : all things were created by
Him and for Him : and He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the
body the Church." Here all the works, relations, and
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 91
offices, wliicli are elsewhere ascribed to the Logos and
the Christ, are ascribed to the Son. The same things,
which in one place, whether in the Old or the New
Testament, are ascribed to Him under one relative or
official title, are under other titles ascribed to Him in
other places. In very numerous instances different
titles, which represent the same Person in His subor-
dinate relations, occur interchangeably; and those
which are used with special reference to the one or to
the other nature in the complex Person, are used inter-
changeably with those which specially refer to the
complex Person. The Person is the same, whether
contemplated as the Logos before or after the human
nature was united to that Person. He was the Jeho-
vah, the Messenger, the Anointed, under the Old Tes-
tament, in the same sense, the same subordinate rela-
tions, the same offices, as He is the Lord, the one sent,
the Christ, under the New Testament. He appeared in
the Shekina, in the tabernacle and temple, and to
Isaiah and Ezekiel, and also on the holy mount, to
Saul on his way to Damascus, and to John in the isle
of Patmos. His works, manifestations, acts, under the
Old, are recognized as His in the New; and those
under the New are prefigured and predicted in the Old
Testament. In all alike He is the same delegated
Person. In the apocalypse He is styled the Alpha and
Omega, the First and the Last, Jesus Christ, the Lord,
the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Word of God.
As such, the redeemed and the angels of heaven wor-
ship Him. All that we know concerning Him, we
know of Him in the official, delegated, subordinate
relations and agencies which He sustains, and by which
92 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
He is rendered cognizable and conceivable by us. I
apprehend that all that He did and does — as Creator,
Ruler, Revealer, Redeemer — is in one relation to the
Father — that of official subordination, (See Hebrews
Chap. 1, and Eph. 3) — while, distinguished as the
Second Person of the Trinity, He is the coequal of the
Father. But whether this view be adopted by every
one; or not, can make no difference in respect to the
Prophetic office of the Divine Revealer. For in that
office no one can doubt but that He was subordinate to
the Father : as a Messenger — one sent — is in the nature
of the case, subordinate to Him by whom He is sent.
What I contend for is that the original Hebrew and
Greek texts were given by inspiration of God, as they
were written. On no other ground can I conceive
them to be infallible, or entitled to be called the word
of God ; as they are according to their own declara-
tions. "With questions and difficulties, alleged to exist
in the present state of these texts, I meddle not. What-
ever they may be, and I apprehend them to be far less
real and important than is commonly imagined, they
are, I conceive, fully as hard to be surmounted on any
other view of the subject, as on that of original Verbal
Inspiration : that is, if the Bible is, in respect to its
contents, to be considered as any thing more than a
mere human composition. If they are the word of
God, uttered by the Spirit through the sacred penmen,
then to ascribe to man's agency any thing of their
matter or manner, can be neither more scriptural, nor
more rational, than to account for the Divine act of
creation, by ascribing the matter of the globe, and its
original forms, to chemical affinities and gravitation.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 93
The difficulties, whatever they may be, actually
exist. They have arisen since the texts were origi-
nally written. Suppose that the words first written
were given to the writers by Inspiration, and were
therefore infallible, and perfect for all the purposes in-
tended ; and that these difficulties of various readings,
omissions, redundancies, and the like, are due to the
writers of the manuscript copies now extant. Then
we have to a very large, though indefinite extent, the
original infallible words. To that extent they are the
very words of God, and are an authoritative and perfect
standard, by which to test the various readings and
discrepancies. Now, since these variations in different
copies are, by common consent, admitted not to affect
any important fact or doctrine, or if they do in any in-
stance, such fact or doctrine is elsewhere and repeated-
ly expressed in the earliest, most perfect and most
reliable copies, the correction of them only requires a
comparison with that which is adopted as the standard.
This settles the matter, obviates the difficulty, and
leaves the text in its unimpaired authority. To what-
ever extent this may be accomplished, you have the
infallible standard, the original words, intact.
But suppose the original text, and that of the oldest
copies, to have consisted of the selected and fallible
words of man, like the words substituted, or interpo-
lated by the copyists, then, though you may have an
approximately original, you have at best but a fallible
text, by which to correct variations. The process of
correction by such a text could not possibly be easier
or more certain, than by a fixed and infallible standard.
It is on the ground of the official relations and words
94 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
of the Holy Spirit, that His personality, and that sins
against Him personally, are specified in Scripture. In
His relations to men, He is personally the immediate
author, teacher, giver, of all their knowledge, intel-
lectual and spiritual, of the holiness and perfection of
the Divine Being, through His inspired words and by
His indwelling, enlightening, purifying influence. In
the execution of His office He stands between the Son
as Kedeemer, and those whom He redeems: and by
His own energy through the Word of God as His in-
strument, brings them into union with Him. They
individually, and as a community of believers — the
church — "are built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets." That foundation is, indubitably, the
Word of God, written by the apostles and prophets as
it was given to them — inbreathed, inspired by the
Spirit. It is therefore the infallible and only basis of
that faith by which believers are united to Christ and
made partakers of the redemption purchased by Him.
The Spirit is as the Inspirer, the immediate author of
that Word. It is written, that it may be His instru-
ment lodged in the understandings and hearts of men.
To resist and reject that "word is to resist Him, and re-
ject His regenerating and sanctifying influence. He
who rejects His words, rejects the only instrument by
which He exerts His power and influence on the minds
and hearts of men. To persist in rejecting His words,
is to preclude the possibility of renovation and sancti-
fication; and is a sin against Him personally. As
illustrations of this, I may cite a Scripture or two with
reference to the church of the ancient dispensation.
Stephen, Acts 7, referring to the history of the He-
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 95
brews and Israelites from the call of Abraham to the
day of his own arrest and martyrdom, says, to their
representatives, the Sanhedrim or council, before whom
he was called to defend himself: "Ye stiff-necked and
Tincircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost: as you fathers did, so do ye. Which of
the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And
they have slain them which showed before of the com-
ing of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the
betrayers and murderers ; who have received the law
by the instrumentality of Messengers and have not
kept it;" which plainly imports, that they rejected the
words of the Holy Spirit uttered by the prophets as
messengers of God. And Isaiah, chap. 63, with the
same retrospective reference, says: " They rebelled and
vexed the Holy Spirit."
The official work of the Holy Spirit in conveying
the words of God to men, whether, as in the earliest
ages, only to be uttered vocally by them, or at later
periods to be uttered vocally and in writing, is the
foundation, the condition precedent to His official work
of sanctification. As His instruments they must be
received, understood, lodged in their minds, prior to
His exerting that work. For He works in, through,
by, them, and not otherwise. Hence the absolute ne-
cessity of their being published, preached, and to a
greater or less extent, received, understood, realized to
the consciousness of every individual in whom He
works a change of heart, enlightens, teaches, purifies,
and preserves through faith unto salvation. They may
be more or less received and understood, as hitherto to a
great extent they have been, by men in whom He does
96 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
not execute His official work ; but He executes that work
in none who have not some intellectual knowledge and
conviction of them. And were the conviction indubi-
tably fixed in the minds of all who read or hear the
words of Scripture, that they are " in truth the words
of God," afar more extended execution of His work
might be confidently expected. This, in the future,
will undoubtedly be realized. The seed, which is the
Word of God, will, as in the apostolic age, be sown
unmixed with tares, and will be made to germinate by
the energy of the Spirit. They shall be all taught of
God, The Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh.
Then will the official work of the almighty, omniscient,
omnipresent Spirit, as regenerator and conservator of
the Church, through the instrumentality of the words
inspired by Him, be fully manifested and acknowl-
edged, to the glory of the Father and of Christ. Then
shall the head stone of the spiritual temple be exalted
with shoutings of Grace, grace ! — not by man's power,
" but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." "Faith,"
says Calvin, book 3d, "has a perpetual relation to the
word, and can no more be separated from it, than the rays
from the sun, whence they proceed. Therefore God
proclaims by Isaiah, Hear and your souls shall live. And
that the word is the fountain of faith, is evident from this
language of John : These are written that ye might be-
lieve. . . . The word itself, however it may be con-
veyed to us, is like a mirror, in which faith may behold
God." The nature, universality, and permanency of
the work of the Spirit in the Church, manifest the re-
lation of His official agency to the progress and con-
summation of that scheme of grace, of which the
world itself was created to be the scene.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 97
If the Holy Spirit actually revealed any thing,
made any original communications to the prophets or
apostles, as He is, time and again, asserted to have
done, I ask the abettors of a multifarious influence as-
sisting them in the exercise of their natural faculties,
how, by what means, in what way He disclosed and
conveyed to them such new thoughts, doctrines, pro-
phesies? Would any stimulating assistance to their
memories, imaginations, and understandings suffice in
such a case, and raise them, as some affect to conceive,
to such a pitch of spiritual intuition as to enable them
to discover the deep things of God? No, say others,
this was revelation, as if that word was sufficiently un-
intelligible and mysterious to cover up the matter.
But others, who define the inspiration of the Scriptures
to be an influence of assistance to men's faculties,
stultify themselves by excepting all that the sacred
writers did not know before — whole books, whole
chapters, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, single words —
as being inspired by that " higher and more genuine
inspiration" which the Scriptures themselves teach,
and which Paul expressly defines. But if the Scrip-
tures assert that genuine inspiration of any part of the
Scriptures, they assert it of the whole and every part
of them, without exception. The terms which they
employ, and the very nature of that genuine inspira-
tion, forbid the supposition of any exception in any
canonical book.
On the view that the Logos in the beginning, the
Jehovah of the Old Testament, and the Incarnate
Word of the New, signified one and the same Divine
Mediatorial Person, the Kevealer of God, exercising
5
98 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW.
at every period of the sacred narrative, His prophetic
office, the peculiar and progressive disclosures of the
Scriptures as written and published from time to time,
are in harmony with His concurrent and His ultimate
objects, and suited to their accomplishment. As an
effect of the apostasy, and of the deceitful lures and
influences of the god of this world, the hearts of men
were alienated, their understandings darkened, their
minds blinded to all spiritual truths. No mere manifes-
tation of the Divine perfections in the works of crea-
tion and Providence, nor any such exhibitions of truths
concerning the Divine existence and perfections, as
constitute what is called natural religion, would suffice
to restrain the corruptions of the fallen race, and to
prevent the universal reign of idolatry and wicked-
ness ; as is shown by the history of all the nations, to
whom such manifestations only have been made.
Personal Manifestations of the Eevealer Himself in
the relations in which He was cognizable and conceiv-
able by men, were requisite ; and would have been
requisite indeed had there been no apostasy, and were
therefore made in Eden, prior to the fall. The Infinite,
Divine Being — whether as a Unity or as a Trinity —
unconditioned by cognizable relations to created intelli-
gences, would have been incognizable and inconceiva-
ble to them. The Logos, assuming such relations,
manifested Himself in them to the observation, intelli-
gence, and faith of men and angels, in His works of
creation, Providence and grace under various aspects
and successive dispensations; and especially in His
redemptive work, as Mediatorial Prophet, Priest and
King, the Personal Image, and Rcvcalcr of the Invisi-
ble Divinity.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW. 99
But these personal relations and manifestations were
rendered cognizable by men, not so much by His ex-
ternal and visible acts, as by His vocal utterances of
words explanatory of His acts, prerogatives, counsels,
and purposes, and of their relations, obligations and
duties. On the exercise of His prophetic office, there-
fore, the disclosure and progress of the system depend-
ed from the beginning ; and from the necessity of His
verbal disclosures being in perfect harmony with the
manifestations of His invisible acts, we may with cer-
tainty infer the importance of every word uttered by
Him, and in His name by His messengers — nay, the
absolute necessity that His thoughts should be uttered
by them in His own words.
The original doctrine of Satan, which he proposed
to Eve, was pantheistic ; Ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. Cain and his followers adhered to this
teaching; notwithstanding the manifestations of Divine
omnipotence, wisdom, and forecast in the visible works
of creation. The negation of that blinding and de-
structive heresy, by the assertion of infallible truth
in the words of the Logos, as Creator of matter and of
all things out of nothing, is expressed in the very first
sentence of recorded Scripture ; where, from the nature
of the subject, and the object of the declaration, we
are bound to believe that the words employed are the
very words of God. But in reality there is the same
reason why all the other words of Scripture are the
very words of God. The antagonism of Satan did not
cease ; nor was it during the ages of idolatry and re-
bellion on the part of the chosen people, or at the
assault in the wilderness on the second Adam, rebuked
and repelled by any other than the very words of Gocl.
100 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
YIII. THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE, AND OF A DIS-
TINCTION BETWEEN KEVELATION AND INSPIRATION.
It is among the remarkable things connected with
the history of this subject, that men of the most emi-
nent character for learning, and personally as Christ-
ian men, who believe the words of Scripture through-
out, to be the infallible words of God, and whose faith
and hope repose on them as such, do nevertheless per-
ceive no difference — in respect to their being His
words — between their having been selected by the
sacred writers under the guidance of the Spirit, and the
very words themselves having been imparted to the
writers ly the Spirit — imparted in a manner equivalent
to an audible vocal articulation. "Were such men re-
quired to answer the question, whether, if selected by
the writers without the supposed guidance, the words
of the sacred text, however true, appropriate, and
answerable to the thoughts, could with any semblance
of propriety be called the words of God, they would,
no doubt, at once, and decidedly, answer in the nega-
tive. And on the other hand, if asked, whether the
very words being conveyed by the Spirit to the minds
of the sacred writers, would not determine them to be
literally the words of God, they would as readily and
decidedly answer, Yes. What then is really effected
by the alleged guidance ? Suppose a sacred writer to
know with perfect accuracy, a fact which he was to
narrate, and to know it in the very words which truly
represented it. Would a supernatural guidance be
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 101
necessary in that case to determine him to choose the
very words which he already knew as truly and accu-
rately representing the fact, and a deviation from
• which would to his intelligent consciousness, misrepre-
sent it? Suppose it to be a fact of consciousness, and
that he .perfectly understood the words in which he
was conscious of it. Surely in such a case it can not
be said that lie was supernaturally guided to choose
the words of which he was already conscious. The
utmost that could be pretended in such a case, would
be that he was restrained from choosing words con-
trary to his knowledge, and his consciousness, and
thereby falling into error. But cases of this sort con-
stitute a large part of what is written in Scripture, of
which the writers had previous knowledge ; with refer-
ence to all which cases it is obvious that the writers
having previously, and perhaps for years, been con-
scious of the right words, could not, when they came
to write them as Holy Scripture, select them by a
supernatural guidance ; nor could such guidance add
any thing to the words to render them more true or
infallible than they were before and without the sup-
posed guidance.
It being an admitted and undeniable fact, that the
words recorded by the sacred writers, were, to a large
extent — as in immediate revelations, predictions, etc.
-^-conveyed to the writers by the Holy Spirit, the
alleged guidance is asserted only of those historical or
other facts of experience and observation which were
previously within the knowledge of the writers. Now
assuming this statement to embrace all the cases in
which an infallible guidance is supposed, I think it
102 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
safe to say that the assertion of it is unscriptural, un-
necessary, inconceivable, and impossible.
1. The assertion of an infallible guidance of the
sacred writers in the selection of words to express his-
torical or other facts, appears to me to be unscriptural,
in the sense of not being taught in Scripture, and of
being contrary to what is taught. I do not find any
such doctrine taught in the Bible; nor have I met
with any writer on the subject who adduces any evi-
dence, by quotations or criticisms, to show that it is
taught in the Bible. It is propounded by Dr. Whitby,
and nearly every writer since, as an hypothesis, a theory
devised to obviate certain objections and difficulties of
matter and style. It is called a theory of Inspiration,
but only by imposing on the word inspiration a sense
different from, and contrary to the sense which that
word bears in Scripture ; as different from, and con-
trary to that sense, as an act which conveys thoughts
from one mind to another is different from and con-
trary to an act or influence which terminates on the
exercise of the mind in thinking.
2. The supposed guidance of the sacred writers is
wholly unnecessary and superfluous. There is nothing
in the nature of the case to demand it. The effect re-
quired is fully provided for by the Scripture doctrine
of Inspiration, which teaches that what the sacred pen-
men wrote was conveyed to their minds by the in-
breathing act of the Holy Spirit. It teaches this com-
prehensively of all that they wrote in their official
capacity. Most, and probably all writers upon the
subject, admit and hold that this Scriptural inspiration
obtained in respect to revelations and whatever was
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 103
not previously known to the writers. The Scriptures
assert it indiscriminately of all that they wrote. It
surely is as competent to the whole as to any part, and
it can not be pretended that there is any more difficulty
in conceiving that, out of all the things previously
known to a prophet, certain particular ones, when in
the discharge of his office he sat down to write, should,
by the inspiring act of the Spirit, be specially and viv-
idly, and exclusively realized to his consciousness, to be
then and there uttered by him in writing, than there
is in conceiving that original and immediate revelations
should be so realized to his consciousness. Another
and different kind of supernatural agency in the case
is therefore unnecessary. Such an inspiration is as
perfect a ground of infallibility, in respect to the one
portion of what is written, as in respect to the other
portion ; and if the supposed guidance was necessary
to render the one portion infallible, then the portion
which was inspired without guidance, would lack the
necessary ground of infallibility.
3. The supposed guidance appears to me to be incon-
ceivable and impossible. For it implies that the sa-
cred writers were, in the intelligent exercise of their
faculties, guided to select words whereby to express
thoughts of which they were not conscious, which is
inconceivable and impossible. For if, prior to the
guidance, they were conscious of the thoughts, they
were conscious of them in words. They could not be
conscious of them apart from words, as I have before
abundantly shown, and as a little reflection must con-
vince every man who thinks. And if it be said that
the words of which they were conscious were not the
104 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
best, the most correct and proper, whereby to express
the thoughts, and that perfect and infallible truth re-
quired that all of them, or some of them, should be
exchanged for other words, then I submit that it is in-
conceivable and impossible that the alleged guidance
should enable them to select such other words. For
in the nature of the case the words of which they were
conscious expressed the thoughts to their intelligent
consciousness, and if a change of the words for others
was necessary, a change of the thoughts also was
equally necessary. For if the new words did not act-
ually modify or change the thoughts, then new words
could not be requisite. But they could not be con-
scious of the new or modified thoughts, till they were
conscious of them in words, and therefore they could
not be guided intelligently to select words whereby to
express them. Inevitably the new or modified thoughts
must be conveyed to their minds' in words by inspira-
tion, in order to their becoming conscious of them.
They, by the exercise of their faculties, guided or not
guided, could no more conceive the new thoughts, or
select words whereby to express them, than they could
conceive the thoughts contained in a prediction, and
select words whereby to express them.
But says the theorist : All those things in Scripture
which the writers did not previously know — all the
thoughts of which they were not previously conscious
— were communicated to them by revelation ; and he
assumes that they were or might be communicated
apart from and independently of words, so that the
sacred writer having the thoughts, partly by revela-
tion, and partly by his own experience and observa-
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 105
tion, might select the words whereby to express them,
and being infallibly guided in his selection by the
Spirit, might select words free from error, and infalli-
bly true. His theory is contrary alike to our con-
sciousness, and to the teachings of Scripture. It is
moreover absurd and ridiculous until he demonstrates :
1. That men are conscious of thoughts apart from
words, and may receive revelations from the infinite
intelligence otherwise than in words; and 2d, that
such supernatural guiding influence was actually ex-
erted on the intellectual faculties of the sacred writers.
The first he never can demonstrate, and without that,
the second would be unnecessary and futile.
If it be said that Divine power might enable men to
select words whereby to express thoughts of which
they were not conscious : then 1. Such an exercise of
Divine power would not be an act of guidance, but an
act of creation ; and 2, it would not be consistent
with the free and intelligent exercise of men's facul-
ties, but contrary to such exercise, and in itself and
its effects merely mechanical. Either, therefore, the
thoughts and words were in their due arrangement
conveyed to the sacred writers by inspiration, or they
uttered in writing their own thoughts and words with-
out any supernatural assistance of any kind.
The proposition that men were guided in making a
selection of words to express thoughts which they
were already conscious of in words which expressed
them as perfectly as they conceived them, is in every
respect absurd. For either it assumes that they se-
lected the very same words — which would be no se-
lection; or that they selected words which did not
5*
106 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
express the thoughts in conformity to their conscious-
ness, and therefore which did not express the same
thoughts. To say that they selected other thoughts,
and also selected words to express such other and dif-
ferent thoughts, is quite another proposition, but no
less absurd ; for they could not be conscious of the
other thoughts apart from the words in which they
conceived them.
I therefore object to that distinction between Reve-
lation and Inspiration, which makes Eevelation the
communication of truth, and Inspiration the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, by which its subject is rendered
infallible in the communication of truth. 1. I find no
such distinction expressed or implied in the Scriptures
themselves. I know of no Scripture which teaches
that some portions of the Bible in distinction from
others, or that the whole of it, was communicated to
the writers otherwise than by Inspiration. The Scrip-
tures themselves declare that they are all given by
Inspiration of God. Paul says of the things which
were communicated to him, and which he preached
and wrote, that " God hath revealed them unto us by
His Spirit." Various Scriptures assert that the Holy
Ghost spake by the mouth of prophets and by David.
Quotations from the Old Testament assert that the
Holy Ghost spake the passages quoted : as Heb. 3 : 7,
and Acts 1 : 16.
2. The words translated Inspiration both in the Old
and New Testaments, mean the same as the phrase,
breathed into. To say that what the sacred penmen
wrote was given to them by Inspiration of God, is pre-
cisely equivalent to saying that the words which they
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 107
uttered in writing were breathed into their minds, or
conveyed into their minds, by the Holy Spirit. Now,
since it was absolutely necessary that the words of
original Revelations should be communicated to the
sacred penmen, and since the revelations are declared
to have been communicated to them by Inspiration, it
is unscriptural and superfluous to make a distinction,
as though Eevelations were communicated in some
other way than by Inspiration.
3. The Scriptures every where teach that what the
sacred penmen uttered in writing was spoken by the
Spirit. It was what He said. The words are His
words as being spoken to them by Him, and uttered
by Him through their instrumentality. He spoke His
own words by their mouths ; uttered His own words
by the instrumentality of their pens.
4. This distinction assumes that Inspiration conveys
nothing whatever of thoughts or words to the sacred
penmen. It assigns to the word Inspiration a wholly
different sense, namely, that of guiding them in their
act of communicating truth to the world. It is made
to signify a guiding influence on the faculties of the
men, making them infallible in their act in announcing,
uttering, communicating truth. It is an inspiration of
the men, not a conveyance of truth to them. It as-
sumes that they had already in their minds, by some
other means than inspiration, the truths which they
were to communicate ; and that all they further needed
was a guidance in the selection and utterance of words.
That supposed and necessary guidance is made to take
the place of, and to signify all that is signified by in-
spiration ; and on this ground Revelation is distin-
108 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
guished from Inspiration; as though the Scriptures
taught us nothing, and it was of no importance to us
to know any thing, as to how, in what manner, by
what agency revelations were communicated to the
sacred writers.
5. No evidence whatever is adduced to justify call-
ing guidance inspiration. No evidence, I apprehend,
can possibly be adduced from the Scriptures them-
selves. It is at best a mere theory, founded on what
is supposed to be necessary in the case — necessary to
make the Scriptures infallible. It being assumed that
the sacred writers selected the words which they wrote,
and that as men they were liable to err, it is alleged
that they were infallibly guided in the exercise of their
faculties in making the selection, and infallibly pre-
served from error in writing. But it is not proved or
even attempted to be proved that they selected the
words. On the contrary it is expressly asserted that
the Scriptures, that is, the words as written, were given
by inspiration of God. The thoughts are not Scrip-
ture apart from the words. If the thoughts were given,
the words must have been given with them. More-
over, with reference to large portions of Scripture, it is
allowed by all that the words must have been com-
municated to the writers. But if they were communi-
cated from the Divine to the human mind, it must
have been either, first by articulate audible utterances,
or second, by silent conveyance of them to the minds
of the recipients by the Almighty and Omniscient
Spirit ; and since they certainly were not all spoken
audibly, it follows that the rest must have been con-
veyed by the act of the Spirit.
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 109
But says the objector, "Why not admit this distinc-
tion between Kevelation and Inspiration ? Why not
adopt the hypothesis that inspiration means a guidance
of the writers ? If they were infallibly guided in their
choice of words, why is not that as good a ground of
infallibility, as a conveyance to them of the very words
of God ? What semblance of difference is there ? I
answer, that this theory of guidance is mere hypothesis,
not shown to have any foundation in fact, not shown
to be necessary, not taught in Scripture. Whereas,
the Scriptures teach that the very words of God were
given, and therefore were infallible as being His. If
the words were given by inspiration, then the writers,
guided or not guided, did not select them. One of
these views is true and the other not. They can not
both be true. One is asserted in Scripture. The
other is a speculative theory. That which is asserted
in Scripture presents incontestable proof of the infalli-
bility of the words. The hypothesis, not being it-
self established upon any evidence, can afford no
proof or ground of infallibility. It is therefore to be
rejected. It leaves it as an open question, whether or
not the writers were infallibly guided in selecting the
words ? It affects to determine the ground on which
the Scriptures are to be received as the infallible word
of God, not on the testimony of Scripture, but on a
theory of man's device. And if one may safely do
this under the notion of an inspiration of infallible
guidance, another — since there is not a word in Scrip-
ture concerning infallible guidance — may as safely do
it, under the notion of an inspiration of Direction, that
is, "such assistance as left the writers to describe
110 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
things in their own way, directing only the mind in
the exercise of its powers ;" another, under the notion
of an inspiration of Ekvation, " which added a greater
strength and vigor to the efforts of the mind, than the
writers could otherwise have attained ;" another under
the notion of an inspiration of superiiitendency, "which
preserved generally from any thing being put down
derogatory to the revelation with which it was con-
nected." The Scriptures say nothing and know no-
thing of either of these kinds of inspiration. They are
mere fancies of men ; and the difference between them
and the Scripture doctrine of inspiration, is the differ-
ence between Scripture and hypothesis, truth and
falsehood, what God says and what man says, I can
conceive of an enlightened and good man, who firmly
believes in the infallibility of the Scriptures as the
word of God ; but who, in his feelings and medita-
tions, has so long and familiarly associated that belief
with the idea of a Divine guidance of the sacred
writers, in the selection of the words which they
wrote, that the idea seems to him to be scriptural, or
consistent with Scripture ; and, as his faith is firm, he
can not see, nor easily be made to see, that such guid-
ance is not as good a ground of faith in the words,
being the real and infallible words of God, as would
be the utterance of the same words by Him, audibly
or by inspiration, into the minds of the writers, and
through their instrumentality to the world. His theo-
ry of guidance seems to him to come to the same
result as the doctrine of immediate verbal inspiration ;
and the result alone appears to him to be of any im-
portance in the case.
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. Ill
But submit to the same man a parallel case where
the infallible words of Scripture, as the very words of
God, are the sole ground of his faith, and he will in-
stantly start back. Take the doctrine of Justification
by faith, and suppose him, in view of the express
verbal statements of Scripture, to believe justification
to be " an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardon-
eth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His
sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to
us and received by faith alone." Now suppose a friend
should say, I believe in justification as firmly as you,
and in the same result, namely, salvation. But I un-
derstand by justification, not an act of God, pardoning
us, and imputing to us the righteousness of Christ ;
but I understand by that word, a work wrought in us
and making us righteous — sanctification — in which
our own agency is concerned, and to which, indeed,
primarily, our active agency is indispensable : as the
active agency of the sacred writers in the selection of
the words which they wrote was, in the order of time,
indispensable before they were guided in the selection.
They could not be guided before they acted. "We can
not be said to be justified till we are personally righteous
and holy, which we are not till we are sanctified. Would
he not instantly and earnestly reply : You mistake the
matter. You have an erroneous and baseless theory.
Sanctification is not justification. You deceive your-
self by giving it that name. Justification is as differ-
ent from sanctification as a Divine act of creation is
from a human act of obedience. It is purely a Divine
act, in which no agency of man is exerted. It is ex-
pressly taught to be such in the words of Scripture.
112 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
Whereas, your theory on the subject is neither taught
nor implied in Scripture. It is a theory invented by
man to exalt and flatter himself and his acts in the
affair of salvation. But, rejoins the other, why object
to my view ? It comes to the same thing. If we are
sanctified we shall be saved, and that is the end de-
sired. Can there be any better ground of assurance th at
we shall be saved, than that of our being sanctified ?
What difference is there between the two views?
Answer : the one view is according to the teachings of
the word of God : the other is contrary to those teach-
ings derogatory to the Scriptures, and as a theory, hy-
pothetical and absurd.
The Greek word translated guide occurs five times
in one form, and five times in another form in the New
Testament. Matt. 15 : 14 : If the blind had the blind-
They be blind leaders of the blind. Matt. 23 : 16, and
24 : Woe* unto you, ye blind guides. . . . Ye blind
guides which strain at a gnat. Luke 6 : 39: Can the
blind lead the blind ? Acts 1:16: which was guide to
them that took Jesus. Kev. 7 : 17 : and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters. Eom. 2 : 19 : art a
guide of the blind. Acts 8 : 31 : except some man
should guide me. And John 16 : 13 : He will guide
you into all the truth.
The passages which relate to blind guides, and the
blind leading the blind, relate, no doubt, to guiding by
verbal instruction. The same is true of Acts 8 : 31.
The Eunuch was reading the Prophet Isaiah. Philip
said, Understandest thou what thou readest ? And he
said, How can I, except some man should guide me ;
that is, teach me, explain to me. " Of whom speak-
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 113
eth the Prophet this, of himself, or of some other
man ?" He understood well enough the words that he
was reading, but they did not indicate to him who it
was that should be led as a lamb to the slaughter. As
to that, he needed a further disclosure ; namely, the
verbal instruction which Philip was sent to give him.
"The Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thy-
self to this chariot." (Yerse 29.)
There are some remarkable personal references in this
narrative from verse 26 to verse 40, which throw light
on our view of the prophetic office. Yerse 26 : " And
the angel of tfie Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise,
and go toward the south," etc. This is the Old Testa-
ment designation of Jehovah as the Messenger of the
Father — the Messenger of the Covenant, (Mai. 3,)
the Messenger (angel) Jehovah, who appeared to
the Patriarchs, and to Moses, spoke familiarly to
him, gave the law at Sinai, and was head of the
theocratic dispensation. The rationalistic commenta-
ries, which, when the angel, or an angel is said to
speak to a man, resolve the statement into an inward
impression or impulse which is felt by the subject, but
is not produced by any external personal agent ; and
when the Spirit is said to speak, as in verse 29, deem
the statement to mean nothing more than an inward
suggestion or intuition, are unworthy of even the low-
est degree of human wisdom. If these views may be
adopted in the present and other cases in the New
Testament, they may be adopted in respect to all
that Moses and the prophets have written, and all pre-
tense of supernatural acts and events recorded in the
Bible may at once be given up.
114 THE THEOKY OF GUIDANCE.
The plain import of this passage is, that the Messen-
ger Jehovah in the exercise of His prophetic office, as
in earlier periods, spoke to Philip, and directed him to
go, in his official character, to a certain place, for a
special service. He obeyed this verbal direction ; and
being about to exercise his office as preacher, that is,
to utter such words as the Spirit inspired into his mind,
put into his mouth, for immediate utterance, he, like
others of his time who spoke, officially, only what the
Spirit supplied to them and spoke by them, was thus
committed to the official direction and control of the
Spirit. " Then the Spirit said unto Philip, go near,
and join thyself to this chariot," (v. 29.) The Eunuch
asked him to explain as to what person it was to whom
the Prophet referred. * ' Then Philip-opened his mouth ,
and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto
him Jesus," (v. 25.) Having accomplished the specific
service on which he was sent, " The Spirit of the Lord,"
the Holy Spirit as sent by Christ the Messenger of the
Father, " caught away Philip" . . . who " was found at
Azotus : and passing through he preached in all the
cities, till he came to Cesarea." (Yerses 39^0.)
The only other passage in which the word guide oc-
curs, as specified above, is John 16 : 13 : "He will guide
you into all the truth." The whole passage, and the
parallel passages, most evidently restrict what the Spirit
was promised and commissioned to do to verbal teach-
ing, communicating truth verbally to the apostles.
Thus : " I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye can not bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the
Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all the
truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatso-
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 115
ever He shall hear, that shall He speak ; and He will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for
He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
(John 16 : 13-15.) The whole of this clearly relates to
communications to be made in words, as by speaking.
The import of the passage may be expressed as fol-
lows : Christ, in His office of Prophet, had yet many
things to say to His disciples. But the time had not
arrived for Him to say them, and would not arrive till
after His ascension ; so that He could not directly ex-
ercise His office by uttering them. But He would
send the Spirit as His Messenger to speak them in His
name, and to glorify Him by receiving and uttering
only what He gave Him to communicate to them.
Thus He would guide them into all the truth by speak-
ing, verbally teaching, them all the truth ; as Philip
guided the eunuch by his verbal explanations. With
this view the parallel passages agree : " The Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever / have said unto you"
(14 : 26.) " But when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall
testify of me," (15 : 26.) To teach is to communicate
knowledge verbally. To recall what has been said, is
to recall words which had been uttered. To testify is
to utter verbal testimony.
To pretend that the word guide in the passage above
quoted, means an influence of the Spirit on the under-
standings, memories, or other faculties of the sacred
writers, which did not teach and communicate to them
116 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
the very words they were to write, but only directed,
guided them in the exercise of their faculties in the
selection of words and communicating them by writ-
ing, is to pervert the very words of Christ, and in
derogation of the office of the Spirit. The selection of
the words which He was to teach and utter was not
delegated even to Christ, or by Him to the Spirit.
The Spirit was not commissioned or authorized to
speak of Himself, that is, words selected by Himself,
but only the words which He received from Him by
whom He was sent. To imagine that the penmen of
Scripture had any personal agency in the selection of
the words, is to exalt them above the Spirit, and above
Christ, to an official equality with the Father. And
as to the idea of a guidance of the apostles in their
selection of words, there is not a hint of that specialty
in the passage under consideration. If there is any
guidance referred to different from direct verbal in-
struction, it is a guidance into all the truth, abstractly
and apart from words. If the theorizer says the
guidance relates both to the truth and the words, he
says what the text does not say.
The Saviour, providing for the execution of His
prophetic office, through the official agency of the
Spirit, and through the subordinate official agency of
the apostles, says in His address to the Father, John
17 : " And now I come to Thee, and these things I
speak in the world, that they might have my joy ful-
filled in themselves. I have given them Thy word.
.... Sanctify them through thy truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into
the world." The official relation of the apostles to
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 117
Christ, as delegated by Him to titter His words as
they should be communicated to them by the Spirit,
was probably as well understood by them and by the
Church in their times, as any fact relating to Christ-
ianity. It was not necessary to repeat or to reaffirm it.
All that was necessary was to assert, and occasionally
to give miraculous evidence that they were apostles.
But during the first age, Christ Himself in the exer-
cise of His prophetic office through subordinate hu-
man agents, was not confined exclusively to the
apostles ; as under the Old Testament He was not
confined to those prophets who were sacred writers.
And as this consideration strikingly corroborates the
foregoing view concerning His prophetic office, I shall
refer to some instances.
" And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem
unto Antioch," where Paul then was. "And there
stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by
the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout
the world ; which came to pass in the days of Claudius
Caesar." (Acts 11 : 28.) At a later period, when Paul
was at Cesarea, the same prophet came there. "And
he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and
feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the
Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this gir-
dle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gen-
tiles." (Acts 21 : 11.) On this it may be observed : that
in the exercise of his office the utterance of Agabus is
expressly said to be the utterance of the Holy Ghost.
The expression, "Thus saith the Holy Ghost," is
equivalent to "Thus saith the Lord," in the Old
Testament. Through this man as His instrument, the
118 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
Spirit spoke certain words, lie concurrently, and freely
exercising his vocal organs, in articulating the words.
There were in the Church at Antioch certain pro-
phets and teachers, among whom were Barnabas and
Saul. " As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul,
for the work whereunto I have called them."
Paul, on his way from Miletus to Jerusalem, landed
at Tyre. "And finding disciples, we tarried there
seven days ; who said to Paul through the Spirit, that
he should not go up to Jerusalem." (Acts 21 : 4.) In
cases like this, it would seem that the words uttered
by the Spirit were audible to all the persons present ;
whether uttered through the instrumentality of the
vocal organs of men or not. The plain inference from
such cases, is, that Christ exercised His prophetic
office either by audible utterances of the Spirit as His
immediate Messenger, or by the agency of the Spirit
through men as His instruments ; and that in particu-
lar cases, the Spirit, instead of speaking directly to
the apostles, or to them through their own vocal or-
gans, spoke audibly to them in common with others,
or through the instrumentality of others. In either
case, and in all cases, in which the Spirit is said to
speak, the articulation and utterance of words is signi-
fied, and it is no less certain that He spoke only the
words of Christ which He was sent to utter.
The main difficulty with many of the excellent men
who have adopted, under the name of Inspiration, a
supposed influence exerted in different degrees on the
minds of the sacred writers, is that of conceiving why
those things which were previously within the know-
THE THEOKY OF GUIDANCE. 119
ledge of the writers, should need to be inspired into
their minds — realized to their consciousness, specially
by a divine act, when they were called to write them
as parts of Holy Scripture. It seems to them, that all
that could be necessary in such a case, was, that what
they so wrote should be true, without mixture of error.
And since such portions of the sacred writings are, in
conjunction with the rest, called the Word of God,
they conceive that a Divine influence must have been
exerted on the faculties, preserving them from error,
and as some believe, guiding them in the choice of
thoughts and words. This inference, from the nature
and necessity of the case, is strengthened, in theii
view, by the fact that the individuality of the writers,
their respective peculiarities of style and manner, are
manifest in what they wrote ; which is regarded ai
clearly implying that they wrote purely of their own
free will, in their own natural way, as knowing it al
ready and being conscious of its truth.
Now let it be observed, 1st. That since the Scrip
tures largely consist of the kind of matter referred to,
and since it is intimately intermingled with original
revelations, prophecies, doctrines, and facts previously
unknown, we must undoubtedly conclude that the Di-
vine Author of the original Revelations, saw fit, re-
quired, determined, that the historical and personal nar-
ratives and other things referred to as previously known,
should be inserted in the writings which were to be
received as His word, and the rule of faith and life.
2d. That the matter so required and inserted, shows
to what extent, and in what manner, the Divine Law-
giver, and Author of the original Revelations, saw it
120 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
to be necessary — to the instruction of mankind, and
the perfect administration of His government, and the
accomplishment of His purposes of mercy and justice
— to connect the revelations, doctrines, precepts, etc.,
which He gave and enjoined, with the agency and ex-
perience of contemporary individuals, families, and
nations, and with human nature in like particulars and
like circumstances, in all subsequent time. 3d. That
this object made it absolutely necessary that the his-
tory and experience of the parties referred to, their
acts, their thoughts, feelings, purposes, desires, hopes,
joys, griefs, should be expressed in the very words
which they employed to express them, which perfectly
conveyed their meaning, and with which both they
and the sacred writers were perfectly familiar in the
style which they respectively employed. 'No other
words or style could possibly have expressed exactly
and perfectly the facts and expressions referred to, at
the different times, and by the penmen who at those
times wrote successive portions of the Scriptures.
4th. That this being granted, it is apparent why the
Divine Author — having determined what should be
included in the Scriptures, and that they should all be
uttered on His authority as His infallible word — should
specifically inspire into the minds of the writers, the
very words which they and their immediate contem-
poraries would employ and did employ to narrate the
same personal, social, and other facts of their experi-
ence. And because the writers and their readers un-
derstood the words and style which were in common
use to express all personal and social facts, relations,
and beliefs — all that they previously knew — it was
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 121
absolutely necessary to their understandings, that the
supernatural revelations should be communicated in
the same familiar words and styles : and accordingly
they were so revealed, and are so expressed, in words
in common use, and in styles, phrases, idioms, as pecu-
liar to the respective writers, as are the narrative and
historical parts of Scripture.
Here then is an intelligible and an ample reason why
both the historical parts of Scripture, and the super-
natural revelations, should be expressly inspired into
the minds of the writers in the words and styles in
common use ; and if all the contents of the Scriptures
were predetermined to be included in them by Him
who seeth the end from the beginning, that they might
all be equally of His authority, His word, the rule of
faith and life, then any objection either to the words
and styles employed, or to their having been inspired
into the minds of the sacred penmen, expressly to be
written as they are, is wholly without sense or reason.
If there could be any valid objection to the convey-
ance by inspiration of the historical parts of Scripture,
on account of their being written in the familiar words
and styles of man, the same objection would be
equally valid against the conveyance in that way of the
supernatural facts and doctrines. There they are, the
supernatural and the natural, inseparably commingled
together, each being essential to the intelligibility of
the other, and both expressed in similar words and
styles. The portions previously known to the writers,
stand in a relation to the supernatural portions, which
their being true and free from error, fulfills only in
part. They are true and free from error ; but in the
6
122 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
place which they occupy they are more than that.
The Divine "Wisdom predetermined that they should
be there written in the words and styles in which they
were true to the apprehension and understanding of
the writers and readers, and that they should be there
as part of the Holy Scriptures, as4 His Word, written
on His infallible authority.
Now in view of the facts of the case — that the
Scriptures, promiscuously, are written in the familiar
words and styles of the writers ; that they are, never-
theless, collectively, the word of God ; that they ex-
pressly affirm of themselves, that they were given by
inspiration of God, written in the words which the
Holy Ghost spake by the prophets, and taught the
apostles ; and that they are, as written, of infallible,
Divine authority — it is plain that the objectors' mode
of accounting for the results, is wholly inadequate, as
well as unscriptural and unnecessary. At best, the
supposed influence on the faculties of the writers, were
such an influence admitted, could do no more than
preserve the writers from error, which is far short of
what the case required. It would be merely a negative
or restraining influence. It would not invest the truths
recorded with Divine authority, and make them infalli-
ble, the word of God, in distinction from all other
truths of human history and experience, which are
not written as parts of the Holy Scriptures. And if
the objector goes farther, and imagines that the sup-
posed influence on the faculties of the writers, selected
out of all that were previously known to them, the
particular truths which they were to write, and the very
words and styles which they were to employ, then it
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 123
may be observed : 1. That the supposed influence on
their faculties, superintending, elevating, or guiding
their exercise of them, could not produce those results.
It would require a wholly different influence, an influ-
ence which, instead of affecting their exercise of their
own faculties, conveyed new intelligence, new thoughts
and words, to them — intelligence as to which of all
the truths known to them, they should write, and which
they should omit — intelligence therefore which they
could not have possessed before, and could not have
discovered or infallibly deduced, by any exercise of
their faculties — and intelligence as to which of all the
words in their vocabulary they should select to express
infallibly the particular truths they were to record ; a
point which, equally with the selection of the particu-
lar truths, omniscience only could infallibly determine.
2d. If this supposed influence conveyed such new in-
telligence, new thoughts and words, unknown to the
sacred writers before, and undiscoverable by them,
then it was not what is pretended, an influence re-
straining or directing the exercise of the human facul-
ties, but iheopneustos, the inbreathing, inspiring act of
God, conveying the requisite intelligence, the particu-
lar truths, the particular thoughts, the particular words
which they were to write, as His Word, the Holy
Scriptures, the infallible rule of faith and life.
It is clear, then, that he who admits that a Divine
influence was necessary to preserve the sacred writers
from error, must admit that no conceivable influence
on their faculties, superintending or guiding their exer-
cise, could accomplish what the case required ; and
that an influence which conveyed into their minds the
124 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
very thoughts and words they were to write, was in-
dispensable ; which is Inspiration, in the sense of
Scripture.
In what respect it can be any easier to conceive why
a Divine influence of guidance should be necessary, in
the case of things previously known to the writers,
than to conceive why those things should be immedi-
ately inspired into their minds, is by no means appar-
ent; nor is it apparent bow an influence could be
exerted, which preserved from error, but left the mat-
ter, the words, and the styles, just as they are, natural
and peculiar to the writers. The difficulty and objec-
tion relate, however, in fact, to the words and styles
themselves, as they actually exist in the Scriptures,
and not in any degree to the question whether the
writers previously knew the things which they wrote,
or to the reasons why they wrote in their accustomed
words and styles.
To one who has a clear conviction that the Bible is
God's Book, wherein He has made an infallible and
permanent declaration of Himself, of His acts, of His
relations, of His purposes, for all the future ages and
dispensations, and so manifested Himself as to be con-
ceivable and cognizable to man and to all finite intelli-
gences, the pretended distinction between revelation
and inspiration must appear to be preposterous and
absurd. For who does not know that this wondrous
catena of communications is delivered in the simple
and homogeneous form of narrative and history ; where-
in superhuman truths, and facts of human experience,
are as intimately associated, commingled, and merged
together, as if there were no distinction between them.
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 125
They are in fact inseparable, and involve each other.
The narrative assumes and is the vehicle of the doc-
trines ; and but for that could never have existed. To
suppose that one part of the matter of successive chap-
ters, paragraphs, verses, was communicated to the
sacred writers by one operation of Divine agency, and
the other part by another, operation ; or that the one
portion was communicated to them disconnected from
the other, and that the other portion was supplied by
them, or was received in a way to have the slightest
dependence on their agency, either in attaining it, or
in combining the two portions in one homogeneous
composition, is as preposterous as it would be to sup-
pose of a history of Greece or Eome, that all the details
of it which related and owed their coloring and influ-
ence to the system of government and of idolatry, and
to the character and acts of the civil, military, and
priestly functionaries, were written by one man, and
that the other details relating to the private lives, and
social customs of the people, and mixed up in every
sentence with the former, were written separately by
another man : or to suppose that all the words required
to express both of these kinds of details, were written
separately on slips of paper, and so shaken up together
as to adjust themselves in the regular and finished
composition. Nay, this is but a faint illustration of
the preposterousness and absurdity of the notion re-
ferred to. For in such history of Greece or Rome all
the details are merely human, finite, and within the
observation and comprehension of a historian. Where-
as, in the Bible, a large portion of the details are
superhuman, not within man's observation or previous
126 THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE.
knowledge, and required to be adjusted consistently,
harmoniously, perfectly, in composition, with the facts
and details of human experience, and temporal, social,
and civil affairs of individuals, families, and nations.
To assign this task of composition in any the remotest
degree to human agency and skill, is to assign to such
agency what no conceivable miracle could bring about,
namely, plenary knowledge or omniscience.
The Bible is one Book. It has one object: the
revelation of God and the salvation of man. To this
its details converge and its history relates. On the
one hand its Divine Author manifests Himself Person-
ally, visibly, historically ; acting, speaking, determin-
ing. On the other, as the details and issues have to do
with man, his character, relations, and agencies, his
sentiments, affections, and emotions, are mixed up, as
warp and woof, with the superhuman events, doctrines,
predictions, precepts, promises, exhortations, and com-
minations ; mixed up just so far, and in such pro-
portions from time to time, as Infinite Wisdom saw
fit. In its relation to man, it is not a general history
of different nations, nor a secular history of the one
peculiar people, except as they were in immediate re-
lation with the covenant people, the redeemed Church
of God, His family, His household, His liege subjects,
His witnesses, the subjects of His immediate discipline,
and the depositories of His written word, for their own
instruction and rule of faith and life, and ultimately
for all kindreds and peoples who shall be reclaimed
and brought under the bond of His covenant. The
scope, design, and tendency of it therefore, as a whole,
and in all its details, are moral and spiritual. The in-
THE THEORY OF GUIDANCE. 127
fluence of every sentiment, and every word of it, is
fraught with moral and spiritual bearings and issues
on the minds and hearts, and in the lives and doctrines
of men. From beginning to end, its Author and Ke-
vealer is the same, the Alpha and Omega, the First
and the Last ; and He is finally to judge, and to acquit
or condemn each individual, according to the words
which He has caused to be written.
To suppose such a book, involving in every part,
not only the wisdom and goodness, but the holiness,
righteousness, justice, and truth of God, to have de-
pended in any tittle of its contents or its composition,
on the will, the understanding, the imagination, or
the memory of man, is to misconceive, or to forget, its
Author, its nature, and its object.
If there are in Germany, or elsewhere, hyper-tran-
scendentalists, or idealistic intuitionalists, who can
conceive of poetry apart from poetical language and
imagery ; of prediction apart from prescience — the fu-
ture by spiritual retrospection ; of history independ-
ently of past events ; of revelations without a revealer ;
of thoughts without words, they must be left to enjoy
their delirious hallucination in their own peculiar way.
But men who believe concerning God, that He fore-
ordained whatsoever comes to pass ; and that the
Scriptures are, in matter and form, in contents and
composition, in thoughts and words, idiom and style,
just what He willed them to be, as the rule of His ad-
ministration, and the only rule of faith and life to man,
can not intelligently believe that one part of them, any
more than all the other parts, were communicated to
the sacred writers or attained by them, otherwise than
128 THE THEOEY OF GUIDANCE.
in the very words and sentences prearranged and
composed, as they were written in the original
texts.
What our condition, as rational and as fallen crea-
tures, requires for us, is a standard of truth, a fixed, in-
fallible criterion. Such a standard must be out of and
independent of ourselves, and preexistent to our wants.
Such a standard is the word of God, as given in the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Not a part
of those Scriptures : not one part to one man, and an-
other part of them to other men ; but the whole of
them, according to their verbal significance, purport,
and design, for every man, the word of God, and
therefore the infallible rule of faith and life. If human
reason, speculation, theory, may sit in judgment on
the question, may select some of those writings as the
word of God, and may reject others as of human au-
thorship, knowledge, will, or discretion, then they are
no standard in the sense, and to the effect that our
exigencies, and our immortal hopes and destiny de-
mand. They are but a nose of wax for each theorist
to wrest conformably to the devices and desires of his
own heart. All that we can possibly know of any
doctrine, precept, promise, instruction, we know by
the words in which it is expressed in the texts of
Scripture. If the words were given by Inspiration of
God, then they constitute an infallible standard of faith
and life. If they were not so given, and all of them,
their infallibility can not be maintained.
THE EELATIVE AND FINITE. 129
IX. THE RELATIVE AND FINITE ONLY CONCEIVABLE
BY THE HUMAN MIND — SIR WILLIAM HAMIL-
TON'S DOCTRINE OF THE CONDITIONED — RELATIVE,
LIMITED.
One of the most striking facts which is exhibited in
the history of the human race, is that of the absence
from the minds of whole nations, from age to age, of
any just apprehensions of the Supreme Being ; any
notions or beliefs transcending those which they enter-
tain of creatures ; and which they express in the lan-
guage and the rites of idolatry. A parallel fact, no
less conspicuous in history, is that no portion of the in-
dividuals of the race, or of any particular nation, has
ever attained just notions and beliefs concerning God,
and His works, otherwise than from His own infallible
words. From these facts it is obvious to infer that
there is an inherent difficulty in the case, which no-
thing but the words of God can supersede. This dif-
ficulty may, in some respects, be aggravated by the
moral depravity and blindness of men as fallen crea-
tures ; but it exists primarily in the chasm between
the infinite and the finite. The Infinite Being, uncon-
ditioned by relations, acts, and expressions, within the
observation and conscious apprehension of men, is to
them, because they are creatures, utterly inconceivable.
To suppose the contrary would be to suppose man to
be the equal of his Creator, and to have the same
knowledge and the same consciousness. The Logos,
therefore, manifested such relations, acts, and verbal
expressions in Eden, before man fell ; manifested His
6*
130 THE RELATIVE AND FINITE.
Personality and His attributes in such relations, and
under such limitations, as to be conceivable and know-
able by man with his limited capacity of thought. It
is in those relations, as described in the words of God,
that we apprehend Him. Beyond that, His words
which assert His mode of self-existence, His infinite
perfections, His eternal counsels and purposes, reveal
Him not to our intellectual comprehension, but to our
faith only.
Hence the absolute necessity and absolute import-
ance of the words of God, in correlation with all His
personal and visible manifestations and works ; and of
their being as truly His words uttered by Him, as that
the attributes and works which they describe should
be truly His. And accordingly the progress of His
written word coincided with that of the manifestation
of His relations in His works of providence and grace.
The Logos in the beginning, and from time to time,
appearing visibly, signalizing His presence by His
acts, speaking audibly, and accompanying His words
by exertions of His power in the production of visible
effects, manifested His Personality and His Divine at-
tributes in such a manner as to be cognizable to man :
but to all intelligent and correct apprehensions and
constructions, His words were as essential as His
works. "Without them, Adam and the patriarchs
would have been as far from rightly construing His
works as manifesting His Divine nature, attributes, and
relations, as the pagan nations have ever been. This
necessity of words, as explanatory of external exist-
ences and relations, and as the medium and vehicle
of thought — of the conception, reception, conscious-
THE RELATIVE AND FINITE. 131
ness, and memory of thought — is common to all cre-
ated minds, inasmuch, as in all the capacity of thought
is limited. This necessity is the same to angels and to
men ; and therefore, the joint manifestation in works
and words — commenced at the dawn of man's exist-
ence, and continued through successive dispensations
— would seem to have been as really for the instruc-
tion of the one as of the other class of minds. What
relation this may have had to the apostasy of Satan
and his confederates, may be further removed from
our comprehension than its relation to the fall of man.
But the relation to the knowledge and the agencies of
the holy angels, of this joint manifestation of works
and words, might easily be traced in all that is revealed
to us, concerning their ministries towards the heirs of
salvation, and towards the sacred writers, and jointly
with the triumphant Church in the doxologies and
praises of heaven ; and concerning their agencies to-
wards the Logos, both before and after His incarna-
tion. From these disclosures it is at least reasonable
to infer that they attained their knowledge of His per-
sonality, His attributes and relations, His offices, dele-
gated agency, works, and words, in the same way, and
by the same manifestations, as man. So far, at least,
as is known to us, no similar manifestations have been
exhibited elsewhere than upon this earth ; and with-
out them neither angels nor men could attain any true
notions or beliefs concerning the Logos, or concerning
the invisible, the infinite, the incomprehensible Deity.
I may confirm these views by a reference to the
writings of the late Sir William Hamilton, the most
able, the most scriptural, and most reliable and de-
132 THE RELATIVE AND FINITE.
monstrative of those who have endeavored to elucidate
the operations and the limitations of the human mind.
I quote from his chapter on the Philosophy of the
Conditioned. His nomenclature can hardly be familiar
to most readers; and if, by necessarily omitting
many qualifying or explanatory clauses I somewhat
impair the fullness of his meaning, I hope nevertheless,
in general, to exhibit it correctly.
He means by the conditioned, existencies, or objects,
which have, and are contemplated as having relations
to other existencies or objects, and, as limited thereby,
being conceivable and cognizable by the limited
capacity of man. On the other hand, by the uncon-
ditioned is meant that which in its nature is infinite,
and without limitation in space, time, ox degree; and his
doctrine, as being that of the consciousness of all men,
is, that the conditioned and limited, but not the uncon-
ditioned, is cognizable and conceivable by the finite
mind of man.
"The mind can conceive, and consequently can
know only the limited and the conditionally limited.
The unconditionally unlimited, or the Infinite, the un-
conditionally limited, or the Absolute, can not positively
be construed to the mind ; they can be conceived only
by a thinking away from, or abstraction of, those very
conditions under which thought itself is realized ; con-
sequently the notion of the unconditioned is only neg-
ative— negative of the conceivable itself. .... The
result is the same, whether we apply the process to
limitations in space, in time, or in degree. . . . The infi-
nite and the absolute are equally inconceivable to us.
... As the conditioned [related, limited] is the only
THE RELATIVE AND FINITE. 133
possible object of knowledge and of positive thought
— thought necessarily supposes conditions. To think
is to condition, and conditional limitation is the funda-
mental law of the possibility of thought. . . . The
mind can not transcend that sphere of limitation, with-
in and through which exclusively the possibility of
thought is realized. Thought is only of the condi-
tioned ; because, as we have said, to think is simply to
condition. The absolute is conceived merely by a ne-
gation of conceivability ; and all that we know, is only
known as c won from the void and formless infinite.'1
How indeed it could ever be doubted that thought is
only of the conditioned, may well be deemed a matter
of the profoundest admiration. Thought can not tran-
scend consciousness ; consciousness is only possible un-
der the antithesis of a subject and object of thought,
known only in correlation, and mutually limiting each
other ; while, independently of this, all that we know,
either of subject or object, either of mind or matter, is
only a knowledge in each of the particular, of the
plural, of the different, of the modified, of the phe-
nomenal, . . . "We can never, in our highest generali-
zations, rise above the finite ; our knowledge, whether
of mind or matter, can be nothing more than a know-
ledge of the relative manifestations of an existence,
which in itself it is our highest wisdom to recognize as
beyond the reach of philosophy. . . . We are thus
taught the salutary lesson, that the capacity of thought
is not to be constituted into the measure of existence,
and are warned from recognizing the domain of our
knowledge as necessarily coextensive with the horizon
of our faith. And by a wonderful revelation, we are
134 THE RELATIVE AND FINITE.
thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to con-
ceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with
a belief in the existence of something unconditioned
beyond the sphere of all comprehensible reality."
Here then we have in the constitution, the limited
capacity of thought, and the universal consciousness
of man, a clue to the reason why both the thoughts
and words of Scripture were given by the Creator
Himself; and why they were given at such tunes, un-
der such circumstances, in such connections with ex-
ternal works and events, in such connections with
human history, experience, agency, and discipline, and
in language and idiom adapted to man's capacity.
Thought is conceivable only of the finite, the limited.
Thought can not transcend consciousness. We are
conscious of thought only in words. But the Scrip-
tures have to do with man's relations to what is above
his capacity, the invisible, the spiritual, the infinite.
" The Scriptures principally teach what man is to be-
lieve, concerning God, and what duties He requires of
him ;" in respect to neither of which has he, in him-
self, the slightest degree of competency ; nor, with re-
spect to either, can he be instructed or have any con-
scious knowledge, without the instrumentality of
words. But every sentence of Scripture — in itself,
its connection with other sentences, or its necessary
implications of doctrines, duties, moral relations, or
spiritual affections — implies a knowledge on the part
of its Author, of which man is wholly incapable, an
all-comprehensive knowledge of existencies not lim-
ited, and of all the relations, connections, bearings,
influences of things spiritual and eternal, Divine and
human.
THE EEL ATI VE AND FINITE. 185
Now all the manifestations of the Logos were con-
ditioned, that is, relative and finite, and therefore cog-
nizable and conceivable as objects of thought in
correlation with the words which He uttered in
announcing and describing them. The superhuman,
so limited, was thus brought within the sphere of finite
apprehension, while His words concerning the uncon-
ditioned— the Infinite, the Absolute — are intelligible
and sufficient as a basis and guide of our faith ; just
as in respect to our faith in the existence of matter.
The relative manifestations of the particular qualities
of matter, are within our capacity of thought and know-
ledge, in correlation with the words in which we think
them. The qualities only are manifested — but as man-
ifested, they irresistibly infer a correlate as their basis
— that of which they are qualities, conditions, limita-
tions, which we call matter, and in which we have as
firm a faith as we have in the qualities, but of which
in itself we know nothing.
From the very commencement of His delegated
work, the titles and acts of the Divine Eevealer are
significant of relations and limitations within our
capacity of knowledge : His titles ; as the Son of God,
The "Word, the Image, the Messenger, the Anointed,
the Mediator, the Prophet, Priest, King, Eedeemer,
Saviour : His acts ; of speaking, commanding, forbid-
ding, prescribing, predicting, promising; of seeing,
hearing, appearing visibly, controlling and producing
visible effects on physical natures, not to specify others
involving superhuman knowledge and power, or to
particularize those in which, as after His literal incar-
nation, the exercise of His hands, feet, eyes, and other
136 THE KELATIVE AND FINITE.
human organs, is asserted of Him. It was in these
manifestations that He was conceivable, cognizable,
knowable, by men and angels, as Divine, as delegated,
as one Person in two distinct natures, as Prophet,
Priest, and King — Eevealer of God in works and
words — the conditioned propounding the uncondi-
tioned to our faith. For the correlate of a /Son is a
Father ; of a word, the thought expressed by it ; of an
image, an original; of a Messenger, an official Superior.
So the correlate of Divinity manifested under such
conditions and limitations, is the Divine nature infinite,
unconditioned. A knowledge of the conditioned,
necessitates a spontaneous faith in the unconditioned.
I hence observe —
1st. That all the manifestations of the Logos were
prescribed, I may say, necessarily prescribed ; since, in
acts and words, they are the basis and prerequisite con-
dition, of our faith in the unconditioned, the infinite
nature and attributes of the Divine Being. They
could not possibly owe their existence to any finite in-
telligence.
2d That the words of Scripture, which directly or
indirectly, all relate to those manifestations, were in-
cluded in what was prescribed ; since they are, as much
as the acts, the basis, and prerequisite condition of our
faith.
3d. That in the Scriptures, however, there is no
ground of discrimination, no line drawn between what
relates to the conditioned, relative, limited, and the
verbal statements which evolve and connect with the
former our faith in the unconditioned.
4th. If, therefore, the Scriptures are the rule of our
THE RELATIVE AND FINITE. 137
faith in the Person, the acts and the words of the
Logos ; in what He has revealed concerning the Per-
sonal relations, offices, and acts of the three Persons of
the Godhead ; and in what we believe concerning the
infinity and eternity of the Divine Being, which are
incognizable and inconceivable to our finite capacity,
it is as incredible, nay, as impossible, that any word of
Scripture, written and published on the authority of
God, should in any sense have originated with man, or
depended on his knowledge or his will, as it is that he
should be the originator and author of the rule of his
own faith, and that of angelic or other created intel-
ligences.
5. This conclusion derives point and emphasis from
the consideration, that the words which constitute the
historical parts of Scripture, and which alone can by any
one be supposed to have been supplied by man, were
at least, in general, uttered in immediate connection
with the manifestation of Divine acts to which they
relate, and which they describe — as in the narrative of
the plagues of Egypt and the entire record of the Ex-
odus, the sojourn in the wilderness, the conquest of
Canaan, the story of the Judges and of the Kings of
Israel and Judah, the four Gospels, the Acts of the
Apostles. He, therefore, who selected the words must
have comprehended the acts with infallible accuracy,
their conditions, relations, limitations, designs, ten-
dencies, and possible influences and issues ; since the
words define and describe the acts, in their due con-
nection with Divine and human agencies, and with
spiritual and secular results.
The mind can not conceive, and therefore can not
138 THE RELATIVE AND FINITE.
know the Infinite ; and for the reason that infinity is
unconditioned — not relative, not limited. The entire
category of divine manifestations therefore, consists of
finite particulars, addressed to the limited capacity —
the observation, the wisdom, the hearing, the under-
standing of man, so as to be cognizable and conceiv-
able by him. But the Scriptures which record those
manifestations, and the words of Scripture which as-
sert the infinity in nature and attributes of the Divine
Being, are the original and only real ground of faith.
He who believes the Scriptures in both these relations,
believes in the infinity of the Divine Being and Per-
fections, and in the distinction of Persons in the God-
head, their official relations, the delegated mission of
the Son and of the Spirit, arid the entire series of man-
ifestations ascribed to them. Of these, the manifesta-
tions in words are no less exclusively theirs than those
exhibited in acts ; and no tittle of the words, any
more than of the acts, can be ascribed to man. To-
wards the unconditioned — the Infinite One, he simply
exercises faith. Of the respective Persons as revealed
and manifested in their relations, acts, and words, he
has both knowledge and faith. They are revealed in
such acts and relations as to be cognizable and con-
ceivable to him — acts and relations which do not tran-
scend his capacity of thought and knowledge — acts of
reciprocal intelligence — relations of mutual sympathy
and fellowship. His fellowship is with the Father, and
with the Son, through the indwelling influence of the
Spirit. The love of God the Father, the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy
Ghost, are realized to him. He knows God as He has
THE RELATIVE AND FINITE. 139
revealed Himself. He worships the Father through
the mediating Son, by the aids of the Spirit. But in
all this, and in all his acts of worship and obedience,
the Word of God recorded in the Scriptures is, exclu-
sively, his rule of faith and life ; and to it, as such, he
has in himself the witness of the Spirit by whose in-
spiration it was given to the sacred penmen.
Of this doctrine of the conditioned, I may observe :
1. That it is wholly incontrovertible by argument.
He who attempts to controvert it, must of necessity be-
gin by assuming that there is no difference or distinc-
tion between the infinite and the finite; and must
argue that to conceive and know the finite is the same
as to conceive and know the infinite. This is the es-
sence of pantheism ; but it is mere assumption, fancy,
delusion, unsupported by reason, and contrary to
universal consciousness. 2. That this doctrine is the
uniform deliverance of every man's consciousness, in
harmony with all the facts of his experience and ob-
servation, and with every thing, doctrinal and histo-
rical, that is recorded in the Scriptures. To say that
man is not God, but a creature ; not infinite, but finite ;
is to say that his capacity of thought, of understand-
ing, of knowledge, is finite, limited ; and that he is by
the constitution and condition of his being as incapable
of conceiving, comprehending, knowing, the infinite,
as the infinite transcends and exceeds the finite. 3.
This doctrine, so palpably prerequisite, presupposed,
and essential, to any true knowledge of God or of our-
selves— any true knowledge of what is revealed and
enjoined in the Scriptures, or true faith in what is as-
serted of the unrevealed, the infinite, the uncondition-
140 THE RELATIVE AND FINITE.
ed — any true knowledge of ourselves as rational and
accountable creatures ; of our relations to one another,
to the past, and to the future ; of our relations to God
and to the system of faith and obedience which He has
prescribed in His Word, rests ultimately on the consti-
tution which God has given us as creatures, and is tes-
tified by our' consciousness in harmony with the Scrip-
tures. We can no more evade, suppress, or rid
ourselves of it than we can divest ourselves of our in-
tellectual and moral nature ; and being in perfect har-
mony with the Scriptures and with all our experience,
its authority is unquestionable and irresistible.
Now I conceive that the doctrine which I have en-
deavored to establish in a former volume — that by our
constitution as intellectual and rational beings, we
think in words, and can not exercise our capacity of
thought otherwise than by silent or vocal articula-
tions, which represent and realize our thoughts to our
own consciousness as perfectly as we conceive them ;
that we receive the thoughts of other minds only in
their spoken or written words, and in signs equivalent
to vocal articulations ; and that we are conscious of,
remember, and express our thoughts only in words
and equivalent signs ; and, therefore, that the thoughts
of the Divine mind conveyed to the sacred writers by
inspiration, were necessarily conveyed in words, in or-
der to their being consciously received and realized to
the understanding and consciousness of the recipients,
consistently with their constitution and with the nat-
ural exercise of their faculties — is in some respects, at
least, analogous to the foregoing doctrine of the condi-
tioned, and like that, as being in harmony with Scrip-
THE RELATIVE AND FINITE. 141
ture, and resting ultimately on the constitution and
consciousness of man, is of like authority ; and I there-
fore urge it as being essential to any right knowledge
of the nature, extent, and effect of Divine Inspiration,
and of the authority and infallibility of the Holy Scrip-
tures. If, as the consciousness of all men testifies, we
think, receive thoughts from others, and are conscious
of thoughts only in words, then, to teach that any
thoughts of the Divine mind were communicated to
the sacred writers without and independently of words,
is to teach that man may know and be conscious of
those thoughts independently of words, and contrary
to, and independently of, his constitution and the nat-
ural exercise of his faculties, which is to make him
more than man, more than limited, more than finite.
If that was of the nature of Inspiration, then such
things in Scripture as were previously known to the
writers, must be excluded from it ; for they must have
been conscious of those things in words. But if all
Scripture was given by Inspiration of God, and if it
was of the nature of Inspiration to convey both
thoughts and words, then it would be as rational to im-
pute that which constitutes a Scripture miracle to the
human messenger whose instrumentality was employed
in the manifestation of it, as to impute any word writ
ten and published as the word of God, to the human
messenger whose mouth or pen was employed in ut-
tering it.
It is therefore on the basis of what the Scriptures
expressly teach concerning their Inspiration, and of
the facts respecting man's constitution and experience
— that thought is possible only of the conditioned, the
142 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
limited, the finite; that thought can not transcend
consciousness, and that man can receive and be con-
scious of thoughts only in words — that I rest the doc-
trine of the plenary verbal Inspiration of the original
texts of Holy Scripture.
X. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF PLENARY
VERBAL INSPIRATION.
All that we know or conceive of the Divine Being,
of His mode of existence, and of His attributes, is de-
rived from the words of Scripture. Those words,
therefore, must be His words ; for otherwise than by
receiving them from Him, the sacred writers could not
conceive the thoughts which they express.
All that we know of His ways of manifesting Him-
self to creatures, and all that we know of spiritual
existences and the invisible world, is taught in those
words, which therefore must be His.
All that we know or can know, of His objects, pur-
poses, and ends, in the works of creation and Provi-
dence, is contained in those words, which are therefore
His words.
All that we know of His method of redeeming,
pardoning, sanctifying, and saving men, is taught in
those words, and therefore they are His.
All that we know of His physical and moral gov-
ernment of the world, is taught in those words ; and
all that we know of man's relations to Him, of man's
apostasy, his obligations, his moral and religious du-
ties, his rule of faith and life, his resurrection, his fu-
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 143
ture existence, and his destiny, is communicated in
those words.
But under these heads all the words of Scripture
are comprised, either by their direct reference, by
necessary implication, or by their moral and historical
connections and relations. And in the relations in
which they are used they are so connected and in-
volved with superhuman, invisible, and spiritual exist-
ences and realities, which are wholly beyond the
limited capacity of man to discover or comprehend, as
to preclude the supposition that he had any agency
whatever in the selection of them, and to enforce the
conclusion that they are, from first to last, the words
of God, selected and prescribed by His omniscient
wisdom. They accordingly comprise all that He has
seen fit to have recorded for the permanent instruction
of the Church and the world, all the verbal revelations
which He has made concerning Himself, all that man is
to believe concerning Him, and the duties He requires
of man, the only and infallible rule of faith and life.
We thus have a glimpse of their importance in the
economy and administration of the Creator and Ruler
of the world ; of their connection with the knowledge,
faith, obedience, and salvation of men ; and of the
necessity of their being communicated to all the indi-
viduals of the race, and of their enduring forever as
the criterion, and in vindication of all the issues of the
system. The place which they occupy in the economy
of providence and grace, in the manifestations of
righteousness, in the administration and the issues of
moral government, bespeaks their transcendent import-
ance to the glory of Grod, and all that relates to man
144 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
in time and in eternity. And hence it is apparent,
why He who projected and who administers this won-
drous system, caused His own words to be recorded
and published as His authoritative and infallible pro-
clamation to the world — to men and angels — and why
His official messengers, in the execution of this work,
were restricted to the utterance of the words which He
prescribed.
In view of what the Scriptures declare, we have
faith in the being and attributes of the Infinite One,
as existing in a threefold personality in one essence
and will, prior to all external works. And since the
fact is revealed in Scripture, we can conceive that,
with reference to an external universe to be brought
into existence, the three coequal Persons entered into a
mutual covenant concerning all the details of such
universe ; and with reference to the actual execution
of the works of creation, providence, and grace, as-
sumed relations towards each other, and towards every
particular of those works. But as those relations with
creatures involved a condescension of the Infinite to
the conditions and limitations of the finite, it is mani-
fest why a subordination of the personal executors
and administrators of the system — that is, of the Son
to the Father, and of the Spirit to the Father and the
Son — was requisite.
To bring the Infinite within the conditions and lim-
itations of the finite, so as to be conceivable and
knowable by the finite capacity of man, was, so to
speak, the problem to be solved. Hence, those cha-
racteristics of the system which are most within the
apprehension and observation of intelligent creatures,
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 145
the countless variety, animate and inanimate, vast and
minute, in tlie works of creation ; the tokens of infi-
nite intelligence, wisdom and goodness in the peculiari-
ties and relations of all the diversified forms of life,
and the modes of material existence ; the types of
form, order and dependence in different classes of the
animal and vegetable creation; the phenomena of light
and vision, of sound and hearing, of sensation and
consciousness. And hence also, the peculiarities and
relations of men as a bodied race of creatures; and the
provision in that form for a personal incarnation of the
Infinite in immediate relation with the finite, in sym-
pathy and fellowship with man as a creature, with his
limited capacity of thought, with his mode of con-
ceiving, being conscious of, and expressing thoughts
in words.
The Second Person of the Trinity assuming His
subordinate relations as Legate and Eevealer, the Lo-
gos in the beginning, in whom was life, and all power
for the execution 01 His works, created the heavens
and the earth as the scene, and all creatures as sub-
jects and instruments of His manifestations. But in
none of the particulars of those manifestations, is there
any thing more indispensable to their being rightly
construed and understood, or more important there-
fore to the effectual accomplishment of their object,
than the words of their author, which He, as perfectly
comprehending His own works in all their relations
and issues, caused to be recorded. That He should
have needed assistance, or should have employed the
agency or instrumentality of man, in the selection of
those words — man, who was as incapable of knowing
7
146 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
the thoughts to be expressed before the words were
imparted to him, as of performing the works to which
they relate — is as incredible as that both the works
and words were merely human. Without the words,
we are without the means of knowing what has been
manifested and enjoined; and unless they are the
words of God, they can not be an infallible rule to us.
The Holy Scriptures, though recorded as they were
given by inspiration at successive periods, constitute
one book, and comprise all that their Divine Author
saw fit to communicate to be written in His name, for
the permanent use of the Church and the world. But it
by no means follows that the portions written prior to
the days of David, or to those of Malachi, comprise all
the truths or doctrines which had been previously re-
vealed, and had entered into the faith and life of the
Church ; or that any of the doctrines of faith which
were recorded by the successive writers, were then
first revealed when they committed them to writing.
There had been an untold amount of oral instruction,
by which the Spirit had enlightened, sanctified, and
guided patriarchs, individual believers — the Church,
from age to age, prior to the time of Moses. That in
struction being extant and operative in the faith of the
Church, and being exhibited and acted out in the ritual
of worship, the discipline of families, the practical
duties of religion, and the rules of life, was assumed as
being already known to those to whom the sacred
writings were from time to time communicated.
Thus the Church was instructed and preserved dur-
ing twenty-five hundred years prior to the age of
Moses; instructed in all those revealed truths, ordi-
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 147
nances, institutions, and rules of faith and life, which,
concerned acceptable worship, holy obedience, and the
way of justification and salvation, through the media-
tion, atonement, and righteousness of the One Re-
deemer. " The Faith once delivered to the Saints," was
faith in those communications. " The Divine Mediator
having, from the foundation of the world, undertaken
the care and salvation of the Church, lie it was who
immediately dealt with it in what concerned its in-
struction and edification." (Owen on Heb. 1 : 1.)
But it must be borne in mind that both in the oral
and written instructions of the Great Revealer, much
more was to be accomplished than merely to inculcate
those doctrines of faith and rules of obedience which
immediately relate to the salvation of men. The pro-
phetic office was as closely connected with that of
moral and providential Ruler of the world, as with
that of Priest and that of King of the redeemed people.
He who in the exercise of His prophetic office im-
parted the instructions, is He by whom all things, in
heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were created,
who upholds and governs all, and is head over all.
In the exercise of His unlimited prerogatives in His
physical, moral, and spiritual administrations, the in-
finite was constantly to be inculcated under the con-
ditions and relations of the finite. Of the invisible,
the spiritual, the supernatural, the eternal, no concep-
tion or notion whatever could otherwise have been
imparted, nor any ground have been furnished for
faith in them, or any words supplied expressive of
them. But these instructions behooved to be con-
sistent in all respects, with all the perfections, purposes,
148 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
prerogatives, and agencies, of the Administrator and
Eevealer, throughout the realms of the dependent uni-
verse ; and to be such as, in the progress and the final
issues of the entire scheme, will appear to all finite
intelligences to be consistent : such, therefore, as will
eternally vindicate the ways of God to man. The per-
fect rectitude, wisdom, and goodness of the moral and
the providential government of God ; the perfect con-
sistency 6*f His foreknowledge and ordination, with
the freedom of man's will, and all the mysteries of na-
ture and grace, time and eternity, will at length be
cleared up, or at least so far as to render their consist-
ency manifest.
On this view we may, perhaps, discern some of the
reasons why the sacred writings are characterized by
such diversified and minute details concerning finite
objects and agencies, and why they have in general a
historical form, in which those details could be exhib-
ited, and made to blend and harmonize, on the one
hand with the superhuman, and on the other with the
free will, free agency, dependence, and accountability
of man. And in like manner we may perceive how,
during the primitive and the patriarchal dispensations,
when the natural was also officially the religious head
of the household, clan, and tribe, a knowledge of all
the doctrines of faith, and rules of worship and obedi-
ence, might, without a written revelation, be effectually
inculcated and preserved, by successive theophanies,
and direct personal teachings, of the Divine Revealer,
and by frequent interpositions of retributive justice
and miraculous power, as in. the punishment of Cain,
the deluge, the confusion of tongues, and the destruc-
tion of Sodom.
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 149
The entire period from the creation to the Legation
of Moses, or rather, perhaps, to the death of Jacob,
was pervaded by theophanic manifestations and direct
oral instructions. A new dispensation was then in-
troduced ; in which to the like manifestations, direct
personal teachings, and miraculous interpositions, was
added a Theocratic headship and government over the
children of Israel. Under this system, a retrospective
history of the earlier period, together with new and
renewed revelations, enactments, and instructions, was
committed to writing. This system, modified from
time to time in some particulars, attained its height
under the reigns of David and Solomon. Its decline,
occasioned by the idolatry and corruption of the tribes,
gave occasion to the ministry of the prophets, to exhi-
bitions of fallen human nature in new aspects, and
to new and varied instructions and manifestations.
Throughout the whole of this history, as in the prior
oral instructions, the contrast and correlation of Divine
and human agencies are exemplified. At the destruc-
tion of the first temple the theocratic administration
ceased. With the incarnation the system of instruction
and manifestation was resumed, or rather the system as
begun in Eden was begun anew, under new conditions
of visibility. The Logos, who in the beginning mani-
fested His Divine nature and His official prerogatives
in the creation of all things, now appeared as God
manifest in flesh ; taking man's nature into union with
His person, for the perfect fulfillment of His offices in
all His relations as Prophet, Priest, and King. God
manifest in flesh ! The Infinite under the conditions
and relations of the finite ! " The Logos was made
150 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
flesh," says the Evangelist, "and dwelt among us ; and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth." In the exer-
cise of His prophetic office He based His announce-
ments and instructions on "the Scriptures" — His
words, recorded in the Old Testament. His official acts
and His personal teachings are recorded in the Gospels.
In the other books of the New Testament are contained
His teachings by the inspiring agency of the Spirit
through the instrumentality of men. During His per-
sonal ministry He manifested His Deity in union with
His humanity by the miraculous exercise of His own
power, by His acts of omniscience, by rising from the
dead, by visibly ascending to heaven ; and both by
His immediate and His mediate teachings and acts,
His citations of Scripture, and His fulfillment of types
and predictions, He demonstrated His personal iden-
tity with the Jehovah of the ancient dispensations.
And finally, in the "Kevelation which God gave unto
Him to show unto His servants," He declares Him-
self the Alpha and Omega of the entire system, the
beginning and the end, the First and the Last, the
Eoot and the Offspring of David ; announces the
future concerning the Church and the world ; and
closes the canon of Scripture by an emphatic and aw-
ful warning against adding to, or taking aught from
His words. In short, as He was officially, in all ex-
ternal manifestations and instructions, the Kevealer of
God, and as His manifestations and instructions are
made known to us only by means of His written words,
it follows that in their relation to us, His words are at
least of equal importance with His works.
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 151
A Divine revelation, teaching what man is to believe
concerning God, and what duties He requires of man,
must, on the one hand, truly represent man according to
the constitution which 6rod has given him ; and on the
other, must exhibit such representations of God, as
man, in conformity with the laws of his mind, would
be able to apprehend, and by analogy, ascribe to the
author of his constitution. As man's nature and facul-
ties are finite, his capacities of knowledge, of thought,
and of consciousness, are limited. The Infinite, there-
fore, must be represented by such forms of finite ex-
pression, in works and words, as he can apprehend,
sufficiently to educe and regulate his faith. Such ex-
pressions will, from the nature of the subject, indicate
existence and realities indefinitely beyond what they
distinctly disclose. They will. enable him to see "as
through a glass darkly," and to believe both in what
he sees, and in what that indicates and necessarily im-
plies. The reality of his apprehension and of his be-
lief, will be infallibly ascertained to him by his own
consciousness.
Now, the mind, in the act of thinking, conditions
that of which it thinks — as for example, in respect to
time, as being present, past, or future ; as to degree, as
being, relatively, in some respect more or less; and
so, as to all the attributes, qualities, modes, and rela-
tions of that which is the subject of thought. This
process is realized to our consciousness in the words in
which we think. Apart from the words, we have no
consciousness of the thoughts. It is therefore absurd
to suppose the mind to select — whether with or with-
out guidance — words whereby to express thoughts of
152 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
which it was already conscious in words. To suppose
it to select other words, is to suppose it to have other
thoughts differing from the former as much as the new-
ly-selected words differ from the former words. If
thoughts are conveyed to the mind, by written cha-
racters, by vocal utterances, or by Inspiration, they, to
be consciously received, must be conveyed in words.
To suppose the recipient to select the words, is to sup-
pose that the thoughts were not conveyed to his con-
sciousness; but that both thoughts and words were
original with him, and in that case to say that he se-
lected the words, is merely to say that he selected the
thoughts, since he could not be conscious of the
thoughts apart from the words. If then — as in re-
spect to our capacity of thought being limited to the fi-
nite, the conditioned, the relative — our own conscious-
ness is the proper test ; then the cherished notion of
some of the most orthodox and most excellent of men,
that the sacred writers selected the words whereby to
express the thoughts of the Divine mind, is erroneous
and delusive.
The question whether the Holy Scriptures are the
words of God, as being in the original texts His utter-
ances of His own thoughts, communicated by Him to
those whom He appointed to write them, and therefore
His words in the same sense that the written words of
men are theirs, is a question of fact to be decided by
evidence. It is not self-evident. It is not a mere mat-
ter of faith, independently of evidences intelligible to
the understanding, and of convictions resulting from
study or from the inward illumination of the Spirit.
Hence their Divine Author not only asserts, ever and
PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION. 153
anon, that the words are His, but He exhibits a variety
of evidences and demonstrations addressed to the rea-
son and conscience of man, that they are indeed His.
The controversy, verbal and actual, between Jehovah
and the worshipers of idols, false prophets, Satan, hy-
pocrites, and unbelievers, turns upon the question whe-
ther or not the words of Scripture are His words ?
That controversy manifests the antagonism between
good and evil — between Infinite good and^rafe evil.
The words employed in Scripture respecting it, imply,
on the part of their author, a perfect knowledge of in-
finite goodness, and of finite evil, and of their relations,
and how they can coexist. Of such knowledge, man is,
by his limited faculties, utterly incapable ; and he is
therefore utterly incompetent to be the author of the
words of Scripture respecting it. The use of those
words therefore proves that they are the words of God.
Were we called on to believe nothing which we can
not conceive of as being finite, then the universe, visi-
ble and invisible, should be as conceivable as any of
its several parts. There should be no distinction in
reality, or as an object of conception, or as an object
of reasoning, between the infinite and the finite ; and our
consciousness should be no evidence either as to what
we conceive, or as to what we believe. We should be
reduced to the necessity of concluding that there was
no universe out of our own minds. The philosophy
and dogmatism which have this issue, are sufficiently
notorious.
Were we called on to believe respecting things finite
only what we perfectly comprehend, and what our
reason dictates, we could have no fixed and settled
154 PLENARY VERBAL INSPIRATION.
faith whatever. For what single thing, external or
internal, do we perfectly comprehend ? The rational-
ism and infidelity which lead to this issue, are abund-
antly common.
But while the heathen are left to these alternatives,
and show by their systems of theory and practice, the
absolute necessity of revelation, the Scriptures, as the
words of the Omniscient Creator, require us to receive
them as His testimony, and to believe them solely on
His authority. They require this with respect to one
portion of their contents, as much, and on the same
ground, as with respect to any other portion ; as much
with respect to what is historical as with respect to
what is doctrinal, preceptive, and prophetic ; as much
with respect to things finite as with respect to things
infinite. Man is no more constituted to be his own
original instructor in any of these things as they relate
to his spiritual, moral, and accountable being, than he
is constituted to be his own moral governor, his own
saviour, and his own final judge. The Creator Him-
self, therefore, who gave man his constitution, gave
His own authoritative and infallible words in the Holy
Scriptures, for the instruction and direction of the
finite, dependent, fallible creature.
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